Bloc MP dies (Benoît Sauvageau)

[Hatman 🍁]

Bloc Québécois MP Benoît Sauvageau was killed Monday in a car accident in Repentigny, east of Montreal, according to police. He was 42.

    Bloc Québécois MP Benoît Sauvageau, seen here in 2000, was killed in a car accident on Monday. (Canadian Press) Bloc Québécois MP Benoît Sauvageau, seen here in 2000, was killed in a car accident on Monday. (Canadian Press)

Police say Sauvageau's vehicle struck a tow truck that was on the side of the road.

Sauvageau, who represented the riding of Repentigny, was first elected to Parliament in October 1993.

He had previously worked as a social sciences teacher and a professor of constitutional history.

Since 2004, Sauvageau had been the Bloc Québécois's Treasury Board critic. He previously held critic's posts for departments ranging from amateur sport to international trade, public accounts and official languages.

"He was respected not only in the sovereigntist camp but by his adversaries who always recognized him for his honesty and his determination," Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said in Quebec City.

"I think he was a very good member of Parliament, a very good sovereigntist."

Sauvageau was elected to the House of Commons in 1993 for the riding of Terrebonne in suburban Montreal. He was re-elected with strong majorities in three subsequent elections in the redistricted riding of Repentigny.

The Bloc won 51 seats in the January election. Sauvageau won 62 per cent of the vote.

He was married to Jacinthe Amireault, with whom he had four children.

"It's awful," Duceppe said. "At 42 with four children between the ages of five and 15, it's not right."

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Reminds me of what happend to David Penhaligon (who was also 42 when he died).

[Hatman 🍁]

It's always sad when an MP dies.

This riding is one of the safest for the Bloc in all of Quebec. It might be on the same day as a possible by-election in London North Centre if Joe Fontana decides to run for mayor of London.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

It's always sad when an MP dies.

^^^

Even if you don't like them very much. Especially when it happens like this...

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"Repentigny" sounds so much like a safe Bloc seat.

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If only all by-elections were caused by resignations...