Linda Lapointe

Linda Lapointe (born July 2, 1960) is a Canadian businesswoman and politician from Quebec. She was an Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) Member of the National Assembly for the electoral district of Groulx from 2007 to 2008. She was elected as the federal Member of Parliament (MP) for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles in the 2015 election, as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, and sat until the 2019 Canadian federal election when she lost her seat.

Linda Lapointe
Deputy Government Whip
In office August 31, 2018 – September 11, 2019
Prime Minister	Justin Trudeau
Preceded by	Filomena Tassi
Succeeded by	Ginette Petitpas Taylor
Member of Parliament for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles
In office October 19, 2015 – September 11, 2019
Preceded by	Laurin Liu
Succeeded by	Luc Desilets
Member of the National Assembly of Quebec for Groulx
In office April 25, 2007 – November 5, 2008
Preceded by	Pierre Descoteaux
Succeeded by	René Gauvreau
Personal details
Born	(1960-07-02) July 2, 1960 Laval, Quebec, Canada
Political party	Liberal Party of Canada
Other political affiliations	Quebec Liberal Party Action démocratique du Québec

Biography

Lapointe has a college diploma in health sciences from the CEGEP Ahuntsic. In 1986, she received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the Université de Montréal. Since her teenage years, she has been working at her father's grocery store Provigo. From 1988 to 1997, she worked as the director of the store. She officially took over the family business in 1997, she became the owned and director of Provigo Lapointe et Fille. She sold the store in 2006.

Community involvement

In addition to her career as a manager, Lapointe was treasurer and member of the Board of the Association des détaillants en alimentation du Québec (Quebec food retailers association) from 2002 to 2006. In 2013, this association has appointed her as a member of its Hall of Fame. In her community, she has been president for the Regrouprement des gens d'affaires of Boisbriand from 2009 to 2015. Since she was 26, she has been actively involved in her community, notably as organizer of Déjeuner de partage.

Political career

Lapointe was first elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 2007 election as a member of Action démocratique du Québec in the riding of Groulx. Lapointe took office on April 12, 2007 and was named the critic for economic development and the Montreal region until 2008. She was also the assistant whip of the official opposition party.

Lapointe was defeated in the 2008 election.

She changed parties and ran for the Quebec Liberal Party in the 2012 Quebec general election and was again defeated.

MP for the 42nd Canadian Parliament

On October 15, 2015, she was elected on the 2015 federal election as a member of the Liberal Party of Canada for the riding of Rivière-des-Mille-Îles. She defeated NDP incumbent Laurin Liu. Shortly after her election Lapointe posted photos on her Facebook page depicting her dressed in a Halloween costume—an Asian hat and robe—which was criticized for cultural appropriation and stereotyping Chinese culture. Lapointe later apologized and removed the photos from Facebook. She was selected by Prime Minister Trudeau's cabinet to sit on two House of Commons parliamentary committees: Standing Committee of Official Languages and Standing Committee on International Trade.

Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee of Official Languages

As a member of this committee, she studied the Government of Canada programs designed to promote francophone immigration to francophone minority communities in Canada, to establish a new Roadmap for Canada's Linguistic Duality (2008-2013) in partnership with the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Mélanie Joly. Her responsibilities also included studying Air Canada's bilingual service and studying access to justice in both languages.

Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade

As a member of this committee, she, with the other members, directed studies and reports on various aspects of Canada’s international trade policy, such as the Softwood Lumber Agreement between Canada et United States of America, the Transpacific Partnership, and the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Private Member's Bill C-236

She introduced a private member's bill on the credit card acceptance fees on February 25, 2016 to members of the House of Commons. The bill was named An act to amend the Payment card Networks act.

Electoral record

Federal

2021 Canadian federal election: Rivière-des-Mille-Îles
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Bloc Québécois	Luc Desilets	21,645	40.6	±0.0	$17,235.31
	Liberal	Linda Lapointe	18,835	35.3	-0.8	$63,876.62
	Conservative	Marc Duffy-Vincelette	5,479	10.3	2.2	$9,189.50
	New Democratic	Joseph Hakizimana	3,852	7.2	-1.4	$24.86
	People's	Hans Roker Jr.	1,468	2.8	1.3	$0.00
	Green	Alex Ware	972	1.8	-3.4	$0.00
	Free	Valérie Beauséjour	847	1.6	N/A	$0.00
	Patriote	Michael Dionne	149	0.3	N/A	$0.00
	Indépendance du Québec	Julius Bute	119	0.2	N/A	$0.00
Total valid votes/Expense limit			53,366	98.1	–	$113,035.56
Total rejected ballots			1,061	1.9
Turnout			54,427	65.4
Eligible voters			83,171
	Bloc Québécois hold		Swing		0.4
Source: Elections Canada

2019 Canadian federal election: Rivière-des-Mille-Îles
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Bloc Québécois	Luc Desilets	23,629	40.61	15.19	$9,764.52
	Liberal	Linda Lapointe	21,009	36.11	3.74	none listed
	New Democratic	Joseph Hakizimana	5,002	8.60	-20.88	$19,322.13
	Conservative	Maikel Mikhael	4,684	8.05	-2.46	$20,256.23
	Green	Ceylan Borgers	3,015	5.18	3.22	none listed
	People's	Hans Roker Jr.	845	1.45	–	$1,000.00
Total valid votes/expense limit			58,184	98.16
Total rejected ballots			1,090	1.84	0.27
Turnout			59,274	71.96	-0.38
Eligible voters			82,372
	Bloc Québécois gain from Liberal		Swing		5.72
Source: Elections Canada

2015 Canadian federal election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Linda Lapointe	18,787	32.37	21.27	$24,179.08
	New Democratic	Laurin Liu	17,111	29.48	-19.64	$54,641.76
	Bloc Québécois	Félix Pinel	14,755	25.42	-1.70	$40,335.73
	Conservative	Érick Gauthier	6,099	10.51	0.21	$31,082.28
	Green	Alec Ware	1,136	1.96	-0.41	$665.90
	Independent	Luis Quinteros	158	0.27	n/a	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			58,046	100.00		$217,630.75
Total rejected ballots			927	1.57	–
Turnout			58,973	72.42	–
Eligible voters			81,429
	Liberal gain from New Democratic		Swing		20.45
Source: Elections Canada

Provincial

2012 Quebec general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Coalition Avenir Québec	Hélène Daneault	16,711	38.02	17.57
	Parti Québécois	Raymond Archambault	14,948	34.01	-4.05
	Liberal	Linda Lapointe	8,776	19.97	-15.70
	Québec solidaire	Sylvie Giguère	1,892	4.30	1.92
	Option nationale	Alain Marginean	895	2.04	–
	Green	Alec Ware	591	1.34	-1.80
	Independent	Alex Munteanu	140	0.32	–
Total valid votes			43,953	98.85	–
Total rejected ballots			511	1.15	–
Turnout			44,464	79.08
Electors on the lists			56,228	–	–
	Coalition Avenir Québec gain from Parti Québécois		Swing		10.81

^ Change is from redistributed results. CAQ change is from ADQ.

2008 Quebec general election
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Parti Québécois	René Gauvreau	11,226	37.62	8.73
	Liberal	Monique Laurin	10,823	36.27	9.07
	Action démocratique	Linda Lapointe	6,036	20.23	-17.22
	Green	Carmen Brisebois	955	3.20	-0.93
	Québec solidaire	Adam Veilleux	701	2.35	0.01
	Parti indépendantiste	Sébastien Hotte	102	0.34	–
Total valid votes			29,843	98.41	–
Total rejected ballots			481	1.59	–
Turnout			30,324	61.33	-14.02
Electors on the lists			49,441	–	–

2007 Quebec general election: Groulx
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Action démocratique	Linda Lapointe	13,630	37.45	18.07
	Parti Québécois	Rachel Gagnon	10,513	28.89	-9.78
	Liberal	Pierre Descoteaux	9,898	27.20	-12.34
	Green	Robert Harenclak	1,503	4.13	–
	Québec solidaire	Adam Veilleux	850	2.34	1.09*
Total valid votes			36,394	99.15	–
Total rejected ballots			311	0.85	–
Turnout			36,705	75.35	1.83
Electors on the lists			48,715	–	–

External links

• "Biography". Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French). National Assembly of Quebec.
• Official Website