Louise Beaudoin

Louise Beaudoin (born September 26, 1945 in Quebec City, Quebec) is a Quebec politician.

Biography

Beaudoin earned a master's degree in history from Université Laval and a master's degree in sociology at the Sorbonne.

In the 1970s, she worked at the École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP). She was also director of Claude Morin's office. Posted to the "Délégation générale du Québec à Paris" from 1984-1985, she was close to René Lévesque in the last years of his life.

Beaudoin was elected as a "péquiste" in the riding of Chambly in 1994, and re-elected in 1998. She was defeated by the Liberal Diane Legault in 2003.

During her time in government, Beaudoin had several portfolios. At various times she was the minister responsible for the Charter of the French Language, international relations, intergovernmental relations, La Francophonie, Culture and Communications, and globalization. She received some press coverage for her spirited defence of Bill 101 on an episode of "60 Minutes". Her rabid enforcement of Bill 101 didn't play well with the Anglophone communities in Quebec, and she was famously portrayed as a dominatrix by popular Montreal Gazette cartoonist Aislin. [http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/scripts/viewobject.php?section=162&Lang=1&tourID=VQ_P4_5_EN&seqNumber=24]

With Sheila Copps, the Minister for Canadian Heritage, Beaudoin also worked for the adoption of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, voted on after the events of September 11, 2001. The same year, she accused the federal government of lying for not permitting Quebec premier Bernard Landry to participate in the Summit of the Americas.

After her departure from the National Assembly of Quebec, she joined the Université du Québec à Montréal as an [http://www.uqam.ca/nouvelles/2003/03-145.htm associate professor] and there continued her studies into globalization.

She was decorated as a "commandeur" of the Légion d'honneur on September 23, 2004.

She did not run for the PQ in the riding of Chambly in the 2007 elections and her assistant Bertrand Saint-Arnaud tried to win the seat. However, the "adéquiste" Richard Merlini won the election as part of a surprising surge of the party in Montreal's southern and eastern suburbs.

As of 2008 she was a host and journalist on Radio-Canada's series 5 sur 5, which answers viewers' questions about a wide variety of topics. [ [http://www.radio-canada.ca/actualite/v2/5_sur_5/equipe.shtml Équipe | 5 sur 5 | zone Télévision | Radio-Canada.ca ] ]

ee also

External links

* [http://www.assnat.qc.ca/fra/Membres/notices/b/beal4.shtml Biography from the National Assembly of Quebec] (in French)
* [http://bilan.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/pages/biographies/1105.html Short biography] (in French)
* [http://www.alliance-us.org/dg/fr/Page.Culture.Lecture.Beaudoin.aspx Notice from the "Alliance française"]
* [http://archives.cbc.ca/IDCC-1-73-1297-7643/politics_economy/bill101/ English language interview from CBC archives 1997]

References