Serge Marcil

Who was Serge Marcil?

Serge Marcil PC was an educator, administrator and politician in Quebec, Canada.

After studying to be a teacher in Montreal, Marcil obtained work at various secondary schools as an administrator. He also served on his local city council in the early 1980s before entering the Quebec National Assembly as a Liberal Member of the National Assembly in the 1985 Quebec provincial election in the riding of Beauharnois. He was re-elected in 1989, and became parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Labour in the Bourassa government. In 1994, he joined the provincial cabinet of Daniel Johnson as Minister of Employment, but both he and the Liberal government were defeated in the 1994 provincial election.

Marcil entered federal politics by defeating Bloc Québécois Member of Parliament Daniel Turp in the riding of Beauharnois—Salaberry in the 2000 federal election. The Liberal MP became parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Industry in 2002. When Paul Martin succeeded Jean Chrétien as Prime Minister of Canada in 2003, he appointed Marcil to the position of parliamentary secretary to the Minister of the Environment with special emphasis on parks. He was also appointed to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada when Martin decided that parliamentary secretaries should be members of that body.