Mauril Bélanger

The Honourable Mauril Bélanger PC MP
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Ottawa—Vanier
Incumbent
Assumed office February 13, 1995
Preceded by	Jean-Robert Gauthier
Chief Government Whip
In office 2003–2004
Prime Minister	Paul Martin
Preceded by	Marlene Catterall
Succeeded by	Karen Redman
Personal details
Born	June 15, 1955 Mattawa, Ontario, Canada
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Catherine Bélanger
Residence	Ottawa
Profession	Administrator, political adviser
Religion	Roman Catholic[1]

Mauril A. Bélanger, PC MP (born June 15, 1955) is a Member of the Canadian House of Commons who has represented Ottawa—Vanier since a by-election victory in 1995. A member of the Liberal Party of Canada, Bélanger served in cabinet during the premiership of Paul Martin as Minister responsible for Official Languages, Associate Minister of National Defence, Minister responsible for Democratic Reform, and Minister for Internal Trade. Bélanger was considered a frontrunner for the position of Speaker of the House of Commons after his 8th electoral victory during the 2015 federal election, but withdrew after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Early life

Bélanger was born in Mattawa, Ontario, a small logging town in northeastern Ontario where the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers meet.

He graduated from the University of Ottawa in 1977, where he had served as President of the Student Federation. In the early 1980s, he worked for Jean-Luc Pépin, then Minister of Transport. In the mid to late 1980s, he worked as a registered investment advisor. He was then the Chief of Staff to Peter Clark (Chair of the Regional Council of Ottawa-Carleton).

Politics

Bélanger was first elected to Parliament on February 13, 1995 in a by-election in the riding of Ottawa—Vanier, which has a large Francophone population.^[2] His predecessor, Jean-Robert Gauthier, was appointed to the Senate. Ottawa–Vanier is considered a solid Liberal riding, having returned a Liberal MP since its creation in 1935, usually in a landslide. Bélanger himself has won by large margins in the 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, and 2008 elections. He won re-election for a seventh term by a reduced margin with 38.2% of the vote in the May 2011 election.

Chrétien and Martin years

As member of Parliament, Bélanger has served as Chair of the Standing Committee on Official Languages, member of the Standing Committee on the Library of Parliament and member of the Prime Minister's Task Force on Urban Issues. From July 1998 to August 2000, he was Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage. In December 2003, he was appointed Deputy Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Chief Government Whip.

In the government of Paul Martin, Bélanger served as Minister responsible for Official Languages, Associate Minister of National Defence, Minister responsible for Democratic Reform, and Minister for Internal Trade.^[2]

Opposition

Bélanger was re-elected in the 2006 federal election, and served as the Official Opposition critic for Canadian Heritage from February 2006 to January 2007, when he began a nine-month stint as critic for Infrastructure and Communities under new Liberal leader Stéphane Dion.^[2] From October 2007 to March 2008, Bélanger served as the Official Opposition critic for Official Languages, Canadian Heritage, and the Francophonie.^[2] After Bélanger won his seat once more in the 2008 federal election, he was appointed as Official Opposition critic for Official Languages in March 2010 by Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff.^[2] After Bélanger's re-election in the 2011 federal election, he continued as his party's critic on this file under interim leader Bob Rae until May 2012.^[2] After Justin Trudeau's election as Liberal leader, Bélanger was appointed the party's critic for Cooperatives in August 2013.^[2]

Return to government

Following his re-election in the 2015 federal election, Bélanger submitted his name for the position of Speaker of the House of Commons and was considered a front-runner for the post.^[3] However, on November 30, Bélanger announced that he was withdrawing as a candidate for speaker after he received a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).^[3] He plans to continue as MP for Ottawa—Vanier.^[4]

In December 2015, fellow Ottawa-area Liberal MP Andrew Leslie presented a motion in the house to name Bélanger honorary Speaker of the House of Commons and the right to sit in the chair for a future day.^[3] In January 2016, Bélanger became the first MP to use a voice generator in the House of Commons when he used an app on his tablet to introduce a private member's bill to amend to lyrics of "O Canada" to make them gender neutral, which he had failed to do through a similar bill in the last parliament by a 144-127 vote.^[5] On March 9, 2016, Bélanger sat in the Speaker's chair for one day, and presided over the proceedings with the aid of an iPad app that produced a computerized voice.^[6]

Positions

Bélanger has earned recognition for his promotion of francophone rights. In 2012, Belanger asked the House of Commons to create a committee to examine the role of co-ops in the Canadian economy. This motion was unanimously passed by the House of Commons.^[7] He presided over the Canadian House of Commons for one day as an honorary Speaker on March 9, 2016, a job he aspired before his diagnosis with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).^[8] Later that year, Bélanger became the National Honorary Spokesperson for the ALS Societies' Across Canada WALK for ALS.^[9]

Honours

He was given the title of Commandeur de l’Ordre de la Pléiade in 2005. The Ordre de la Pléiade is a francophone order which focuses on contributions made to international friendship and cooperation. In 2007, László Sólyom, President of Hungary, made him an Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary. In April 2009, the Royal Canadian Legion recognized Belanger's for his contribution to the promotion of goodwill.

Electoral record

Canadian federal election, 2015: Ottawa—Vanier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Mauril Bélanger	36,474	57.57	+19.47	–
	New Democratic	Emilie Taman	12,194	19.25	-9.43	–
	Conservative	David Piccini	12,109	19.11	-8.84	–
	Green	Nira Dookeran	1,947	3.07	-1.99	–
	Libertarian	Coreen Corcoran	503	0.79	–	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Christian Legeais	128	0.2	-0.03	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			63,355	100.0		$218,727.98
Total rejected ballots			418	–	–
Turnout			63,773	–	–

Canadian federal election, 2011: Ottawa—Vanier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Mauril Bélanger	20,009	38.17	-8.03
	New Democratic	Trevor Haché	15,391	29.36	+12.30
	Conservative	Rem Westland	14,184	27.06	-0.22
	Green	Caroline Rioux	2,716	5.18	-3.40
	Marxist–Leninist	Christian Legeais	122	0.23	-0.02
Total valid votes/Expense limit			52,422	100.00
Total rejected ballots			316	0.60	+0.07
Turnout			52,738	68.24	+4.20

Canadian federal election, 2008: Ottawa—Vanier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Mauril Bélanger	23,948	46.20	+3.89	$79,668
	Conservative	Patrick Glémaud	14,138	27.28	-1.39	$53,405
	New Democratic	Trevor Haché	8,845	17.06	-4.75	$30,040
	Green	Akbar Manoussi	4,447	8.58	+1.98	$3,842
	Independent	Robert Larter	227	0.44	–
	Marxist–Leninist	Christian Legeais	130	0.25	+0.04
	Canadian Action	Michel St-Onge	100	0.19	–	$149
Total valid votes/Expense limit			51,835	100.00	$85,605
Total rejected ballots			277	0.53
Turnout			52,112	64.04
	Liberal hold		Swing	+2.64

Canadian federal election, 2006: Ottawa—Vanier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Mauril Bélanger	23,567	42.31	-6.86
	Conservative	Paul Benoit	15,970	28.67	+4.48
	New Democratic	Ric Dagenais	12,145	21.81	+3.27
	Green	Raphaël Thierrin	3,675	6.60	-0.27
	Progressive Canadian	James C. Parsons	221	0.40
	Marxist–Leninist	Alexandre Legeais	117	0.21	-0.28
Total valid votes			55,695	100.00
	Liberal hold		Swing	-5.67

Canadian federal election, 2004: Ottawa—Vanier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Mauril Bélanger	25,952	49.17	-6.40
	Conservative	Kevin Friday	12,769	24.19	-6.95
	New Democratic	Ric Dagenais	9,787	18.54	+9.83
	Green	Raphaël Thierrin	3,628	6.87	+4.62
	Marijuana	Carol Taylor	558	1.06	-0.45
	Marxist–Leninist	Françoise Roy	85	0.49	+0.34
Total valid votes			52,779	100.00

Canadian federal election, 2000: Ottawa—Vanier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Mauril Bélanger	26,749	55.57	-6.30
	Alliance	Nestor Gayowsky	7,590	15.77	+5.97
	Progressive Conservative	Stephen Woollcombe	7,400	15.37	+1.77
	New Democratic	Joseph Zebrowski	4,194	8.71	-3.28
	Green	Adam Sommerfeld	1,083	2.25	+0.94
	Marijuana	Raymond Turmel	728	1.51
	Natural Law	Pierrette Blondin	187	0.39	-0.27
	Canadian Action	Raymond Samuéls	131	0.27
	Marxist–Leninist	Kim Roberge	74	0.15	-0.13
Total valid votes			48,136	100.00

Canadian federal election, 1997: Ottawa—Vanier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	Liberal	Mauril Bélanger	30,728	61.87	+1.14
	Progressive Conservative	Luc Edmund Barrick	6,754	13.60	+3.92
	New Democratic	David Gagnon	5,952	11.99	+5.57
	Reform	Roy Grant	4,868	9.80	-10.76
	Green	Richard Guy Briggs	651	1.31
	Natural Law	Roger Bouchard	330	0.66	+0.10
	Independent	César Antonio Bello	241	0.49
	Marxist–Leninist	Robert Rival	138	0.28	-0.03
Total valid votes			49,662	100.00

Canadian federal by-election, February 13, 1995: Ottawa—Vanier
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Mauril Bélanger	11,918	60.06	−10.41	$52,001
	Reform	Kevin Gaudet	4,034	20.33	+12.44	$36,995
	Progressive Conservative	Françoise Guenette	1,899	9.57	−0.96	$30,933
	New Democratic Party	Bob Lawson	1,259	6.34	−0.16	$5,764
	Christian Heritage	Gilles Gauthier	299	1.51		$1,751
	Green	Frank de Jong	218	1.10	−0.24	$0
	Natural Law	Ian A.G. Campbell	109	0.55	−0.35	$131
	Marxist-Leninist	Serge Lafortune	61	0.31	+0.02	$136
	Abolitionist	John Turmel	46	0.23	+0.17	$0
Total valid votes			19,843	100.00
Total rejected ballots			201
Turnout			20,004	30.39	−32.04
Electors on the lists			65,824

Ottawa municipal election, 1976: By-St. George's Ward
Candidate	Votes	%
Georges Bedard (X)	2,785	80.06
Mauril Bélanger	694	19.95

References

1. "Catholic MPs stand ground on abortion despite threat". Ottawa Citizen. 14 March 2008. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
2. "PARLINFO - Parliamentarian File - Complete File - BÉLANGER, The Hon. Mauril, P.C., B.A.". Retrieved 2015-12-10.
3. "Veteran MP Bélanger, diagnosed with ALS, to sit for a day as honorary Speaker". www.cbc.ca. Retrieved 2015-12-10.
4. "Mauril Bélanger will continue as Ottawa–Vanier MP after ALS diagnosis". Ottawa Citizen. November 30, 2015.
5. "MP Mauril Bélanger uses voice generator to introduce bill". www.cbc.ca. Retrieved 2016-01-28.
6. Wherry, Aaron (2016-03-09). "Commons Sketch: Mauril Bélanger takes Speaker's chair in "rare moment of grace" for Parliament". www.cbc.ca. CBC News. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
7. "Mauril Bélanger a Champion in the Co-op Movement". Axiom News. Retrieved 4 February 2016.
8. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/belanger-speaker-house-of-commons-1.3483371
9. "Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger Takes the Lead as the National Honorary Spokesperson for the ALS Societies' Across Canada WALK for ALS | ALS Canada". www.als.ca. Retrieved 2016-04-20.

External links

• Official website
• House of Commons Webpage
• How'd They Vote?: Mauril Bélanger's voting history and quotes
• Mauril Bélanger – Parliament of Canada biography