Marcelle Mersereau

Marcelle Mersereau
MLA for Bathurst
In office 1991–2003
Preceded by	Paul Kenny
Succeeded by	Brian Kenny
Personal details
Born	February 14, 1942 Pointe-Verte, New Brunswick, Canada
Political party	Liberal

Marcelle Mersereau, (born February 14, 1942, in Pointe-Verte, New Brunswick) is a Canadian politician.

A civil servant for most of her career, she also served as a councillor on Bathurst, New Brunswick city council while on the provincial payroll from 1980 to 1991. She resigned her seat on council upon being elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick in the 1991 provincial election. A member of Frank McKenna's Liberal Party, she was immediately named to cabinet and became deputy premier in 1994. She served in a variety of roles in cabinet until the defeat of the Liberals in the 1999 election. She defeated PC candidate Robert N. Stairs to retain her seat in Bathurst, one of only 10 Liberals to survive what was their worst ever electoral defeat.

In opposition she was a top critic and the media reported she had lost the vote in her caucus to become interim leader of her party by a margin of 4-3 following the resignation of Camille Thériault. Her most high-profile role in opposition was that of finance critic. She did not seek re-election to the legislature in 2003 but has remained active in her party. She was elected vice president of the New Brunswick Liberal Association on October 4, 2003, and re-elected on October 15, 2005. During the 2004 federal election, she was co-chair of the Liberal campaign in New Brunswick. She was the Liberal candidate for the House of Commons of Canada in the riding of Acadie—Bathurst in the 2006 federal election, but finished second to Yvon Godin of the New Democratic Party.

She served as co-chair of the successful Liberal campaign as it prepared for the 2006 provincial election. She succeeded Greg Byrne as president of the New Brunswick Liberal Party when he resigned after being appointed to the cabinet following the 2006 election and served the post until stepping down in the Fall of 2007.

2006 Canadian federal election: Acadie—Bathurst
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Yvon Godin	25,195	49.90	-4.03	$69,502.02
	Liberal	Marcelle Mersereau	15,504	30.71	-1.96	$65,035.20
	Conservative	Serge Savoie	8,513	16.86	5.92	$54,729.58
	Green	Philippe Rouselle	699	1.38	-1.07	$774.79
	Independent	Eric Landry	362	0.72	–	$2,613.63
	Independent	Ulric Degrâce	219	0.43	–	none listed
Total valid votes/expense limit			50,492	100.0		$74,710
Total rejected, unmarked and declined ballots			523	1.03	-0.15
Turnout			51,015	75.46	5.08
Eligible voters			67,608
	New Democratic hold		Swing		-1.04

References

• List of Women MLAs, New Brunswick Legislative Library