Diane St-Jacques
Encyclopedia
Diane St-Jacques is a Canadian
politician.
Formerly promotional coordinator for Agropur in Granby, and advertising consultant for a radio station in Sherbrooke, involved in the community in a variety of volunteer roles, and involved in politics since 1979, St-Jacques first stood for office in the 1997 federal election
as the Progressive Conservative
candidate for Shefford
. With Sherbrooke's Jean Charest
as national leader, the party experienced a resurgence in Quebec's Eastern Townships
, and St-Jacques was elected to the House of Commons
, taking her seat from the Bloc Québécois
.
Until she left the PC caucus, she was its designated parliamentary critic for International Cooperation
, La Francophonie
, and children and youth. She was also identified as the PC "family critic."
In 1999, St-Jacques joined MPs Svend Robinson
(NDP
) and Réal Ménard
(Bloc), both openly
gay
, and Toronto Liberal
MP Bill Graham, in a "pink caucus" across party lines. The group advocated that the legal definition of spouse include same-sex couples
. The social conservative
Campaign Life Coalition
decried St.-Jacques as "a married mother of one, who says she isn't a lesbian
but who supports the gay agenda."
St-Jacques spoke in Parliament in favour of medical marijuana
rights.
In April 1998, Charest left federal politics to seek the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party, and Tory support in Quebec declined under Joe Clark
's leadership. On September 12, 2000, with an election increasingly close, St-Jacques, with fellow Tory MP David Price
and independent, formerly Tory MP André Harvey
, joined the Liberal Party of Canada
and the Liberal caucus. St-Jacques and Price reportedly told Clark they would leave the party months earlier.
In the 2000 election
, St-Jacques retained her Shefford seat as a Liberal.
She served as Parliamentary Secretary
to the Minister of Human Resources Development
in the government of prime minister
Jean Chrétien
from January 13 until December 11, 2003, and as Deputy Government Whip
under Chrétien's successor Paul Martin
from February 2, 2004, until she left office.
In the 2004 federal election
, she lost her seat to Robert Vincent
of the Bloc Québécois. She ran again in the 2006 federal election
, placing third place behind Vincent and the Conservative
candidate Jean Lambert. She received 23.4% of all votes cast.
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...
politician.
Formerly promotional coordinator for Agropur in Granby, and advertising consultant for a radio station in Sherbrooke, involved in the community in a variety of volunteer roles, and involved in politics since 1979, St-Jacques first stood for office in the 1997 federal election
Canadian federal election, 1997
The Canadian federal election of 1997 was held on June 2, 1997, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 36th Parliament of Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's Liberal Party of Canada won a second majority government...
as the Progressive Conservative
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada was a Canadian political party with a centre-right stance on economic issues and, after the 1970s, a centrist stance on social issues....
candidate for Shefford
Shefford (electoral district)
Shefford is a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1867. Its population in 2006 was 100,000.-Demographics:Ethnic groups: 99.2% WhiteLanguages: 95.2% French, 3.2% English...
. With Sherbrooke's Jean Charest
Jean Charest
John James "Jean" Charest, PC, MNA is a Canadian politician who has been the 29th Premier of Quebec since 2003. He was leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998 and has been leader of the Quebec Liberal Party since 1998....
as national leader, the party experienced a resurgence in Quebec's Eastern Townships
Eastern Townships
The Eastern Townships is a tourist region and a former administrative region in south-eastern Quebec, lying between the former seigneuries south of the Saint Lawrence River and the United States border. Its northern boundary roughly followed Logan's Line, the geologic boundary between the flat,...
, and St-Jacques was elected to the House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...
, taking her seat from the Bloc Québécois
Bloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada devoted to the protection of Quebec's interests in the House of Commons of Canada, and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was originally a party made of Quebec nationalists who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative...
.
Until she left the PC caucus, she was its designated parliamentary critic for International Cooperation
Minister for International Cooperation (Canada)
The Minister for International Cooperation is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing Canadian international development strategy, including responsibility for the Canadian International Development Agency . The current Minister is Bev Oda.-Ministers:Key:...
, La Francophonie
La Francophonie
Francophonie is an international organization of politics and governments with French as the mother or customary language, where a significant proportion of people are francophones , or where there is a notable affiliation with the French language or culture.Formally known as the Organisation...
, and children and youth. She was also identified as the PC "family critic."
In 1999, St-Jacques joined MPs Svend Robinson
Svend Robinson
Svend Robinson is a former Canadian politician. He was a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons from 1979 to 2004, representing the suburban Vancouver-area constituency of Burnaby for the New Democratic Party...
(NDP
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
) and Réal Ménard
Réal Ménard
Réal Ménard is a Canadian politician, who was a Bloc Québécois member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1993 to 2009. He was the second Canadian Member of Parliament to come out as gay .Ménard is a political scientist with B.A. and M.A...
(Bloc), both openly
The Closet
The Closet may refer to:* The Closet , Chinese film* The Closet , French film* The closet, referring to undisclosed homosexuality- See also :* Closet* Closet * In the closet...
gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, and Toronto Liberal
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...
MP Bill Graham, in a "pink caucus" across party lines. The group advocated that the legal definition of spouse include same-sex couples
Same-sex marriage in Canada
On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world and the first country in the Americas to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide with the enactment of the Civil Marriage Act which provided a gender-neutral marriage definition...
. The social conservative
Social conservatism (Canada)
Social conservatism in Canada is a political attitude that is widespread, though not as pronounced as in the United States. It represents conservative positions on issues of family, sexuality and morality...
Campaign Life Coalition
Campaign Life Coalition
The Campaign Life Coalition is a Canadian conservative Christian pro-life group. It is based in Toronto, Ontario...
decried St.-Jacques as "a married mother of one, who says she isn't a lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
but who supports the gay agenda."
St-Jacques spoke in Parliament in favour of medical marijuana
Medical cannabis
Medical cannabis refers to the use of parts of the herb cannabis as a physician-recommended form of medicine or herbal therapy, or to synthetic forms of specific cannabinoids such as THC as a physician-recommended form of medicine...
rights.
In April 1998, Charest left federal politics to seek the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party, and Tory support in Quebec declined under Joe Clark
Joe Clark
Charles Joseph "Joe" Clark, is a Canadian statesman, businessman, and university professor, and former journalist and politician...
's leadership. On September 12, 2000, with an election increasingly close, St-Jacques, with fellow Tory MP David Price
David Price (Canadian politician)
David Price, PC was a member of the Canadian House of Commons from 1997 to 2004, serving in the 36th and 37th Canadian Parliaments....
and independent, formerly Tory MP André Harvey
André Harvey
André Harvey, PC is a consultant, politician and former teacher in Quebec, Canada.Harvey was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1984 general election that brought Brian Mulroney to power...
, joined 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 Liberal caucus. St-Jacques and Price reportedly told Clark they would leave the party months earlier.
In the 2000 election
Canadian federal election, 2000
The 2000 Canadian federal election was held on November 27, 2000, to elect 301 Members of Parliament of the Canadian House of Commons of the 37th Parliament of Canada....
, St-Jacques retained her Shefford seat as a Liberal.
She served as Parliamentary Secretary
Parliamentary Secretary
A Parliamentary Secretary is a member of a Parliament in the Westminster system who assists a more senior minister with his or her duties.In the parliamentary systems of several Commonwealth countries, such as the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, it is customary for the prime minister to...
to the Minister of Human Resources Development
Minister of Human Resources Development (Canada)
The Minister of Human Resources Development is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's human resources department, Human Resources Development Canada .-Ministers:Prior to 1996, the post was known as Minister of Employment and...
in the government of prime minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...
Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....
from January 13 until December 11, 2003, and as Deputy Government Whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
under Chrétien's successor Paul Martin
Paul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
from February 2, 2004, until she left office.
In the 2004 federal election
Canadian federal election, 2004
The Canadian federal election, 2004 , was held on June 28, 2004 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections...
, she lost her seat to Robert Vincent
Robert Vincent
Robert Vincent is a Quebec politician, formerly a Bloc Québécois Member of Parliament for the riding of Shefford.Born in Granby, Quebec, he was a foreman and union advisor before he was first elected in 2004....
of the Bloc Québécois. She ran again in the 2006 federal election
Canadian federal election, 2006
The 2006 Canadian federal election was held on January 23, 2006, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 39th Parliament of Canada. The Conservative Party of Canada won the greatest number of seats: 40.3% of seats, or 124 out of 308, up from 99 seats in 2004, and 36.3% of votes:...
, placing third place behind Vincent and the Conservative
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
candidate Jean Lambert. She received 23.4% of all votes cast.