Jean-François Fortin | |
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Leader of Strength in Democracy | |
In office October 21, 2014 – January 3, 2016 |
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Preceded by | position created |
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia |
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In office May 30, 2011 – October 19, 2015 |
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Preceded by | Jean-Yves Roy |
Succeeded by | Rémi Massé for Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia |
Leader of the Bloc Québécois in the House of Commons (Interim) |
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In office February 26, 2014 – August 12, 2014 |
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Preceded by | André Bellavance |
Succeeded by | Louis Plamondon |
Personal details | |
Born | September 12, 1973 |
Political party | Strength in Democracy |
Other political affiliations |
Independent (2014) Bloc Québécois (2011-2014) |
Profession | Professor |
Jean-François Fortin (born September 12, 1973) is a Canadian politician. He was elected to represent the riding of Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia in the 2011 federal election as a member of the Bloc Québécois, and was chosen interim parliamentary leader of the Bloc on February 26, 2014.
On August 12, 2014, Fortin quit the party to sit as an independent, saying that the Bloc Québécois he had joined no longer exists and that new party leader Mario Beaulieu had destroyed its credibility.
On October 21, 2014, Fortin, along with Jean-François Larose, the NDP MP for Repentigny, announced that they were forming Strength in Democracy, a new Quebec-centred political party dedicated to representing the province's regions. In the 2015 federal election he ran for the new riding of Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia and lost to Liberal Rémi Massé.
Prior to being elected to parliament, Fortin was a professor of political science at Cégep de Rimouski from 2001 until 2011. He was also elected as a city councillor in Sainte-Flavie in 2003 and served a term as mayor from 2006 until 2009.
Fortin was one of only four Bloc Québécois MPs elected in the 2011 federal election which saw the party's caucus reduced from 47 to 4 and was the only non-incumbent Bloc candidate to win election. He won the seat of Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, which had been vacated by fellow Bloc Québécois politician Jean-Yves Roy who resigned from Parliament in late 2010 because of ill health.