Robert Bertrand

Robert "Bob" Bertrand (born April 4, 1953 in Fort-Coulonge, Quebec) is a Canadian politician.

He was a federal member of Parliament for the riding of Pontiac—Gatineau—Labelle. He ran and won in the 1993, 1997 and 2000 Canadian federal elections with significant majorities under the banner of the Liberal Party of Canada. Although considered a backbencher, he was very active in Parliament, participating in several standing committees including primarily National Defence and Veterans Affairs working to study and improve the poor quality of life for members of the Canadian Forces and their families. He also served as Parliamentary Secretary for the Minister of National Defence from 1998 to 2000.

Although prepared to run in the 2004 federal election, he lost the Liberal party candidate nomination to an unknown at the time, David Smith. This was due to new party nomination rules put in place by Paul Martin that changed the long standing policy of selecting the incumbent by acclamation, part of the infighting that was present within the party at the time. Many rural party members (who traditionally supported Bertrand) felt disenfranchised by this defeat because of the new party nomination rules which called for 3 polling locations spread out across the riding (Fort-Coulonge, Wakefield and Maniwaki) instead of the traditional 1 neutral polling site for both candidates. They believed this favoured the Maniwaki area party members (most of whom supported Smith) because of the greater concentration in their numbers in conjunction with their polling location.

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