Robert Benoit

Robert Benoit (born April 11, 1944) is a Canadian politician in the province of Quebec. He served in the National Assembly of Quebec from 1989 to 2003 as a member of the Quebec Liberal Party.

Early life and career

Benoit was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec and studied commerce and administration at the Collège Paul-Valéry in Montreal. He received an investment dealer's diploma in 1968 and was hired by Dominion Securities Quebec in the same year. He became active with the Liberal Party in 1978 and campaigned for the "non" side in the 1980 Quebec referendum on sovereignty.^[1]

Benoit was president of the Quebec Liberal Party from 1985 to 1989 and led the party's finance committee for at least part of this time.^[2][3] At the party's 1987 conference, he called for Liberals to shift from a purely economic focus and devote more attention to social issues, creating policies to benefit the homeless and unemployed.^[4] The following year, Benoit helped persuade the party's youth wing to endorse the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement.^[5] He also supported the unsuccessful Meech Lake Accord on reforming the Canadian constitution.^[6]

For twenty-three years, Benoit was the next-door neighbour of Canadian author Mordechai Richler.^[7]

Legislator

Benoit was chosen as the Liberal candidate for Orford in the 1989 provincial election, despite objections from some local organizers who regarded him as a candidate of the party establishment.^[8] He was easily elected. The Liberals won a second consecutive majority government, and Benoit entered legislature as a backbench supporter of Robert Bourassa's government. He was appointed as parliamentary assistant to the premier on November 29, 1989, and served in this position until December 14, 1993.^[2]

Benoit campaigned in Quebec's Eastern Townships in support of the Charlottetown Accord on Canadian constitutional reform in 1992.^[9] The accord was defeated in a referendum. In April 1993, Benoit said he would support a liberalization of Quebec's Charter of the French Language, which restricts the public use of languages other than French.^[10] He was re-elected in the 1994 election as the Liberals lost government to the Parti Québécois. After the election, he served as his party's critic for the environment and industry.^[11]

In 1995, Benoit supported Progressive Conservative candidate Guy Lever in a federal by-election in Brome—Missisquoi.^[12] Lever finished a distant third against Denis Paradis of the Liberal Party of Canada.^[13] Benoit later became one of the first Quebec Liberal MNAs to encourage federal Progressive Conservative leader Jean Charest to seek the Quebec Liberal leadership in 1998.^[14] Charest was eventually chosen as leader without opposition.

Benoit was elected to a third term in the 1998 provincial election. The Parti Québécois were re-elected provincially, and Benoit once again served as his party's critic for the environment.^[15] In 2002, he negotiated with Parti Québécois minister André Boisclair to secure the amalgamation of Magog, Quebec with neighbouring communities.^[16] He did not seek re-election in 2003, standing aside for star candidate Pierre Reid.^[17]

Out of the legislature

After leaving the legislature, Benoit taught history at the college level and tutored in the Université de Sherbrooke's Master of Business Administration program.^[2]

Benoit strongly opposed the Charest government's decision to sell part of the Mont-Orford National Park to private developers in 2006.^[18] He helped form the group SOS Parc Mont-Orford to lobby against the sale and tried to overturn the decision via an emergency resolution within the Liberal Party.^[19]

He called for fundamental changes to the Liberal Party in 2010, saying that it had become simply "a machine for collecting money."^[20]

Electoral record

Quebec general election, 1998: Orford
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Robert Benoit	21,164	50.96	−0.11
	Parti Québécois	Olivier Désilets	16,248	39.12	−1.81
	Action démocratique	René Forget	3,624	8.73	+2.16
	Socialist Democracy	Josué Côté	352	0.85
	Natural Law	Claire Desmeules	144	0.35	−0.43
Total valid votes			41,532	100.00
Rejected and declined votes			396
Turnout			41,928	81.32	−1.47
Electors on the lists			51,560
Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec.

Quebec general election, 1994: Orford
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Robert Benoit	19,082	51.07	−6.41
	Parti Québécois	Ginette Therrien	15,295	40.93	+8.91
	Action démocratique	Michel Roy	2,454	6.57
	Natural Law	Jean-Paul Lapointe	293	0.78
	Parti économique	Carole Blouin	242	0.65
Total valid votes			37,366	100.00
Rejected and declined votes			554
Turnout			37,920	82.79	+8.59
Electors on the lists			45,802
Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec.

Quebec general election, 1989: Orford
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Robert Benoit	17,236	57.48
	Parti Québécois	Henri Bourassa	9,601	32.02
	Unity	Claude-M. Ostiguy	1,696	5.66
	New Democratic	Denis Boissé	861	2.87
	Parti 51	André Perron	594	1.98
Total valid votes			29,988	100.00
Rejected and declined votes			760
Turnout			30,748	74.20
Electors on the lists			41,442
Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec.

External links

• "Biography". Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French). National Assembly of Quebec.

References

1. Rita Legault, "Orford MNA Robert Benoit calls it quits after 14 years," Sherbrooke Record, 28 February 2003, p. 1; Andre Picard, "Foot soldier of the accord," Globe and Mail, 2 October 1992, A6.
2. "Biography". Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French). National Assembly of Quebec.
3. Marion Scott, "Quebec Liberal treasurer quits amid rezoning flap," Montreal Gazette, 27 June 1989, A1.
4. Don Macpherson, "Liberals here try sounding more liberal," Montreal Gazette, 26 November 1987, B3; "Quebec Liberals request police racism investigation," Vancouver Sun, 23 November 1987, A10.
5. Nancy Wood, "All Quebecers should be sent copy of Bill 101: young Liberals," Montreal Gazette, 15 August 1988, A1.
6. Lise Bissonnette, "The cost of saying 'no' to the Meech Lake Accord," Globe and Mail, 4 March 1989, D2.
7. "Richler kept a steady routine when at home in Eastern Townships," Canadian Press, 4 July 2001, 23:09.
8. Benoit Aubin, "Quebec Liberals introduce team in flashy sound and light show," Globe and Mail, 19 August 1989, A5.
9. Andre Picard, "Foot soldier of the accord," Globe and Mail, 2 October 1992, A6.
10. "Quebec Liberals will debate sign law following UN ruling," Edmonton Journal, 23 April 1993, B6.
11. Graeme Hamilton and Philip Authier, "PQ rapped for snubbing environment ministers' meeting," Montreal Gazette, 9 November 1994, A5; Campbell Clark, "Job estimates off for Paille plan: auditor," Montreal Gazette, 5 June 1997, A6.
12. Tu Thanh Ha, "Some Liberals to back Tory in by-election," Globe and Mail, 6 January 1995, A6.
13. While there is significant membership overlap, the federal and provincial Liberal parties in Quebec are not affiliated.
14. Graham Fraser, "Still undecided, Charest insists," Globe and Mail, 14 March 1998, A4. He also encouraged Charest to keep some staff members of outgoing leader Daniel Johnson, Jr.. See Alan Toulin, "Welcoming Charest," Financial Post, 21 March 1998, p. 10.
15. "Quebec to re think how it handles contaminated U.S. soil," Canadian Press, 2 June 2000, 16:15.
16. Nelson Afonso, "Quebec forces three-way merger," Sherbrooke Record, 3 October 2002, p. 1.
17. Kevin Dougherty, "Demonstration set for June 3," Montreal Gazette, 12 May 2006, A12.
18. Philip Authier, "Storm gathers over Orford," Montreal Gazette, 8 March 2006, A1.
19. Rhéal Séguin, "Land for park expansion deforested and overpriced, PQ says," Globe and Mail, 19 April 2006, A8; Philip Authier, "Dissidents aim to stop Orford from within Liberal Party," Montreal Gazette, 27 April 2006, A1.
20. Don MacPherson, "Liberals might need a timeout to renew," Montreal Gazette, 20 November 2010, B7.