Mathieu Tremblay

Mathieu Tremblay (born January 18, 1956) is a Canadian politician, councillor, and conservationist. He was first elected to the St-Raymond City Council in 1982 and served 2 terms in total. Tremblay also worked as a wildlife conservationist from 1978 to 1982 and 1988 to 1993 and then successfully entered federal politics by running for a seat in the House of Commons in 1993. Tremblay is seen as a controversial yet respected figure within Canadian politics, and has been seen as one of the most notable "mavericks" within the Progressive Party of Canada due to his socially centre-right yet fiscally centre-left viewpoints that he holds and has been praised by supporters for promoting the ideology of Christian democracy in Canada.

Early life
Mathieu Tremblay was born on January 18th, 1956 in Lac-Saint-Joseph in a lower-middle-class family in a largely Anglophone community. His parents were Lucas Tremblay, (a Member of Parliament for over 20+ years, but was later assassinated via a murder-suicide attack in Sherbrooke), and Adrienne Tremblay, who was a taxi driver. His father was killed when Mathieu was 2 years old, as he lived with his mother until the age of 18. Tremblay attended and graduated from high school as a valedictorian, and attended Trois-Rivieres University in 1978, where he graduated with a master's degree in law. Tremblay proceeded to work as a lawyer for the next 4 years until 1982 when he left his position at his local law firm to enter municipal politics.

Municipal politics
Tremblay moved to St-Raymond, Quebec after retiring from his local law firm and ran to become a Councillor for the St-Raymond City Council in 1982, where he won convincingly. Tremblay promoted social Conservatism while supporting fiscal Progressivism in the St-Raymond City Council, where he introduced multiple bills that were popular with the voters of his city. His first bill, which protected the right to life by putting restrictions on sex-selective abortion and coerced abortion, was barely defeated, as his second bill, which regulated pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug prices, passed easily. His popularity, along with introducing multiple popular bills, re-elected Tremblay in a landslide. Tremblay later retired from municipal politics 2 years into his 2nd term in order to run for the 1988 by-election in Portneuf–Jacques-Cartier.

Tremblay decided not to run for a third term after that, stating "I don't believe elected officials should serve more than 2 terms, as I believe we should build a society that works for the people in a populist manner, and a way to make sure that can be achieved is not letting power go to the politicians head with the assumption they can rule forever under a system which I believe to be flawed," in an interview with Télé-Québec.

Federal politics
Tremblay has previously stated that he is "somewhat interested in running for a seat for the House of Commons, but I personally do not fully agree with any of the major parties on certain issues. A few parties I can agree with on socially disagree with me on fiscally, vice versa," in an interview with Ici Radio-Canada Télé, as in that same interview, Tremblay stated that he would "most likely run as a candidate for the House of Commons in the electoral district of Portneuf–Jacques-Cartier, which I've mostly lived in for the grand majority of my life."

Tremblay later announced his candidacy for the riding of Portneuf–Jacques-Cartier but stated that he would remain unaffiliated until he reached a consensus on which party he would join. He later confirmed he would run for the Progressive Party in the 1988 by-election in Portneuf–Jacques-Cartier.

In the 1988 by-election, Tremblay barely lost by a controversial margin of 2 votes, but later went on to defeat the incumbent Member of Parliament Marc Ferland in a re-match convincingly in the 1993 election, where Tremblay received 62.6% of the vote in his electoral district of Portneuf–Jacques-Cartier.

In 1993, Tremblay ran for the leadership of the Progressive Party of Canada, leading a socially centre-right yet fiscally centre-left campaign in a campaign that was more appealing to the previous J. S. Woodsworth faction and M. J. Coldwell faction of the Progressives. Tremblay came in third with 18% of the vote, where he managed to pick up Labrador, Saint-Croix, New England, the British Virgin Islands, the Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Turks and Caicos, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and his home province of Quebec in an extremely tight race against challenger [https://canadasim.miraheze.org/wiki/Kari_Labossi%C3%A8re Kari Labossière. Kari Labossière came in second with 18% of the vote, barely defeating Tremblay in the popular vote,] with John Mason defeating Labossière and Tremblay with 64% of the vote.

Tremblay introduced multiple bills in the 35th Parliament, including Bill C-8: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Protection Act, Bill C-9: Canadian Internet Expansion Act, Bill C-10: UNICEF Requital Act, and Bill C-11: Affordable Post-Secondary Education Act.

In 1993, Tremblay was appointed National Campaign Chair of the Progressive Party of Canada. That same year, Tremblay formed a new caucus for the Progressive Party of Canada called the Christian Solidarity Caucus. The caucus faced criticism from all parties and was eventually dissolved by John Mason, the incumbent party leader of the Progressive Party of Canada.

All of Tremblay's bills he introduced for the 1st session in the 35th Parliament ended up passing, as Tremblay sent a shockwave to the Progressive Party of Canada for voting for the Conservative's Bill C-34, an anti-abortion bill that outlawed abortions past twenty weeks, with Tremblay attending numerous pro-life marches, as these actions were unusually praised by the Reform Party, despite Tremblay's previous criticism of the party. Tremblay was eventually censured by the party and was removed as National Campaign Chair for the Progressive Party of Canada.

In 1996, Tremblay appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn R. v Morgentaler but the case was rejected by the justices after a review of the potential court case. In the 1997 federal election, Tremblay was re-elected by a smaller margin compared to the 1993 federal election. After the election, Tremblay announced that he would be running for leader of the Progressive Party of Canada after the death of John Mason.

In February 1998, Tremblay was appointed as Shadow Minister for Economic Affairs by incumbent Interim Party Leader of the Progressive Party of Canada, David Palczewski. He left this position two months later and crossed the floor to become an Independent in April 1998.

Personal life
Mathieu Tremblay married Gabrielle Tremblay on January 28th, 1974, and announced the birth of his first child, Jacob Tremblay, on January 4th, 1976. His son went on to be the youngest MPP ever elected for the Quebec Progressive Party in the riding of Rosemont.

Tremblay identifies as a Roman Catholic.

Federal elections
''Note: Marc Ferland's margin of victory was by 8 votes originally, which led to a requested recount by Tremblay, shrinking Ferland's victory to only 2 votes. No other recounts could be requested after that.''