Damien Hétu was a politician in the Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 province of Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

. He served as mayor

Mayor

In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....

 of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts

Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec

Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts is a town in the province of Quebec in the regional county municipality of Les Laurentides, in the administrative region of Laurentides, also known as the "Laurentians" or the Laurentian Mountains...

 on two separate occasions and was a Liberal member of the National Assembly of Quebec

National Assembly of Quebec

The National Assembly of Quebec is the legislative body of the Province of Quebec. The Lieutenant Governor and the National Assembly compose the Parliament of Quebec, which operates in a fashion similar to those of other British-style parliamentary systems.The National Assembly was formerly the...

 from 1985 to 1989.

Early life and career

Hétu was born in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts and received his early education in the town. He trained as an electrician and radio/television technician, and in 1952 he began working as an electrician and entrepreneur in his home community. He successfully campaigned for a local sports center, which was opened in the 1970s.

Hétu was a municipal councillor in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts from 1959 to 1965 and was the community's mayor from 1970 to 1974. In the same period, he was an organizer for both the Liberal Party of Canada

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 and the Quebec Liberal Party. He ran for the Quebec legislature in the 1981 provincial election

Quebec general election, 1981

The Quebec general election of 1981 was held on April 13, 1981, to elect members of the National Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. The incumbent Parti Québécois, led by René Lévesque, won re-election, defeating the Quebec Liberal Party, led by Claude Ryan.The PQ won re-election despite...

 and lost to incumbent Parti Québécois

Parti Québécois

The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...

 cabinet minister Jacques Léonard

Jacques Léonard

Jacques Léonard is an accountant, educator, and politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. He served in the National Assembly of Quebec from 1976 to 1985 and again from 1989 to 2001 and was a cabinet minister in the governments of René Lévesque, Jacques Parizeau, and Lucien Bouchard...

 in Labelle

Labelle (provincial electoral district)

Labelle is a provincial electoral district in Quebec, Canada that elects members to the National Assembly of Quebec. The riding was created in 1980 from parts of Laurentides-Labelle and Gatineau. The riding also existed from 1912 to 1973...

.

Legislator

Hétu was elected to the national assembly on his second attempt in the 1985 provincial election

Quebec general election, 1985

The Quebec general election of 1985 was held on December 2, 1985, to elect members of the National Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. The Quebec Liberal Party, led by former premier Robert Bourassa, defeated the incumbent Parti Québécois, led by premier Pierre-Marc Johnson.This election...

. The Liberal Party won a majority government

Majority government

A majority government is when the governing party has an absolute majority of seats in the legislature or parliament in a parliamentary system. This is as opposed to a minority government, where even the largest party wins only a plurality of seats and thus must constantly bargain for support from...

 in this election under Robert Bourassa

Robert Bourassa

Jean-Robert Bourassa, was a politician in Quebec, Canada. He served as the 22nd Premier of Quebec in two different mandates, first from May 12, 1970, to November 25, 1976, and then from December 12, 1985, to January 11, 1994, serving a total of just under 15 years as Provincial Premier.-Early...

's leadership, and Hétu served for the next four years as a government backbencher. A 1988 newspaper report indicates that he had one of the best attendance records in the legislature, missing fewer than one per cent of recorded votes.

He was defeated by Léonard a second time when seeking re-election in 1989

Quebec general election, 1989

The Quebec general election of 1989 was held on September 25, 1989, to elect members of the National Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada...

.

Return to municipal politics

Hétu was re-elected as mayor of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts in 1990 and served until 1994. He presided over a water boil advisory for the community in 1992, due to concerns about contamination from lead pipes.

Electoral record