Benoît Sauvageau

Who was Benoît Sauvageau?

Benoît Sauvageau was a Canadian politician, who served as a Bloc Québécois member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1993 until his death in 2006.

Born in Charlemagne, Quebec, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree and was a professor before entering politics. In 1993, he was elected to the House of Commons of Canada for the Quebec riding of Terrebonne. He was subsequently re-elected in the 1997, 2000, and 2004 elections in the redistricted riding of Repentigny. From 2003 to 2004, he was the Deputy Whip of the Bloc Québécois. In the federal election that fell on January 23, 2006, Sauvageau garnered over 62% of the vote in his riding for a landslide victory over the Conservatives and the Liberals, who were still reeling from their political fallout from the sponsorship scandal.

Admired for his warmth and good nature by friend and adversary alike, Sauvageau championed fiscal responsibility on the Public Accounts committee and the language rights of francophones on the Official Languages committee.