Rodrigue Biron

Rodrigue Biron
Member of the National Assembly of Quebec for Lotbinière
In office 1976–1985
Preceded by	Georges Massicotte
Succeeded by	Lewis Camden
Personal details
Born	(1934-09-08) September 8, 1934 (age 82) Sainte-Croix, Quebec
Political party	Union Nationale, Parti Québécois

Rodrigue Biron (born September 8, 1934) is a politician in Quebec, Canada. He was leader of the Union Nationale political party from 1976 to 1980, when he joined the Parti Québécois (PQ). He served as Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism in the PQ government.

Biron was manager of his family’s sewer pipe factory in Sainte-Croix, Quebec. Prior to entering provincial politics, he had been a card-carrying supporter of the Liberal Party of Quebec.

Biron served as Mayor of the Town of Sainte-Croix, Quebec, from 1971 to 1973.

He became the leader of the conservative Union Nationale (UN) party on May 23, 1976. The UN had once dominated Quebec provincial politics, but in the 1973 election, it lost all of the seats that it had held in the previous National Assembly. However, the party returned to the National Assembly of Quebec by winning a by-election in 1974.

Biron led the party to a modest comeback in the 1976 election, winning 11 seats. The party won one anglophone riding, where UN candidate William Shaw was elected capitalizing on discontent with Bill 22 language legislation passed by the Liberal government of Robert Bourassa.

The 1976 election had been won by the sovereigntist PQ, however, and the nationalist vote on which the UN had counted for support gravitated toward that party. Biron resigned as Union Nationale leader on March 3, 1980, and joined the PQ on November 11 of that year.

In the 1981 election, he was elected as a PQ member of the National Assembly, and served as Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism. Meanwhile, his former party, the Union Nationale, was again wiped out in the 1981 election, this time for good—the party never won another seat, and eventually ceased to exist.

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