Pierre Arcand
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pierre Arcand is a Quebec politician, businessman, announcer and journalist. He is the newly elected MNA for the provincial riding of Mont-Royal in the Island of Montreal. He represents the Quebec Liberal Party.
He is the brother of TVA and radio journalist Paul Arcand.
[edit] Journalist career
Arcand started his journalistic career in 1978 at CKAC as a news editor and then the radio station's vice-president and then senior vice-president of Telemedia in which the company acquired several radio and television stations across the province but mainly in the Montreal area. Among those included CKOI-FM and CFCF-TV. In 2002, he would become the president of Corus Nouvelles who is the owner of the radio stations that belonged in the Telemedia group.
[edit] 2007 provincial elections and Jean-Marie Le Pen controversy
In 2007, Arcand decided to try in provincial politics when he announced his candidacy in the provincial elections for the riding of Mont-Royal which was left vacant by Health minister Philippe Couillard who announced his candidacy in the riding of Jean-Talon in Quebec City replacing Margaret Delisle. He decided to run in order to improve the province's competitiveness in the economic domain.
Prior to the start of the campaign, Arcand compared ADQ leader Mario Dumont to French far-right politicien and leader of France's Front National, Jean-Marie Le Pen.
In an interview on Radio-Canada's radio show Christiane Charrette he quoted on Mario Dumont : [1] [2]
| “ | Dans le cas de Mario Dumont, ce que je n'aime pas, c'est qu'en 1995, il était indépendantiste, puis en l'an 2000, il était comme Mike Harris. Là, il devient le Jean-Marie Le Pen du Québec. Il a fait une attaque directe contre les communautés culturelles.
English Translation: In the case of Mario Dumont, what I don't like is that in 1995 he was a separatist, then in 2000 he became like Mike Harris and then, he became the Jean-Marie Le Pen of Quebec. He made a direct attack against the cultural communities. |
” |
The controversy arose during a period when the issue of reasonable accommodations was a dominant topic prior to the start of the campaign. Shortly after the interview, Dumont had requested Arcand to retract his statements in which helater corrected it in a press conference. Despite the controversy, he was easily elected in Mont-Royal.
