Pierre Ducasse
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Pierre Ducasse (born August 18, 1972), a Canadian politician, is a prominent New Democratic Party (NDP) activist.
He grew up in Sept-Îles, Quebec, and studied at Université Laval. A party member since age 17, he was appointed interim vice-president of the federal party in 2000, and was elected to the post at the NDP convention in Winnipeg in November 2001.
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[edit] Leadership Race (2003)
In January 2003, he became the first Québécois to run for the federal leadership of the party. Although he placed fifth among the six candidates, his campaign was widely acclaimed for raising the profile of the NDP in Quebec and vice versa.
The campaign speech he gave to the NDP convention in Toronto was acclaimed as one of the most eloquent since the days of Tommy Douglas. His profile was also raised when Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, endorsed him prior to the first ballot.
Speculation was heard that if it were not for the party's new one member one vote system, which allowed the majority of the party's membership to vote before the convention, he would have obtained a much larger proportion of the vote.
Jack Layton, the Quebec-born winner of the leadership election, appointed Ducasse to be the party's Quebec lieutenant and official spokesman in Quebec.
[edit] Federal Elections
Ducasse has been the NDP candidate for the riding of Manicouagan three times, first in the federal election of 1997 then in the 2004 Canadian federal election, and then in the 2006 election.
In 2004, he finished third in a race won by Gérard Asselin of the Bloc Québécois. While it made little dent in Quebec, the Ducasse campaign was of note in English-Canada, as it was the site of a furor over the Clarity Act, at the end of the first week of campaigning, Jack Layton travelled to Quebec to support Ducasse, while there Layton re-stated his opposition to the Clarity Act, causing an uproar in the English media. That statement coupled with Layton's accusation that he held Prime Minister Paul Martin personally responsible for the deaths of homeless people in Toronto (due to budget cuts to Housing programs), was viewed by some as killing NDP momentum.
In May 2005, Ducasse secured the Manicouagan NDP nomination for the 2006 Canadian Election. He placed fourth, but improved his results to 4,657 votes or 12.8%.
In January 2007, Ducasse annouced that he would seek the NDP nomination for the next election in the federal riding of Hull-Aylmer.
[edit] Quotable Quotes
- Pour avoir les résultats que vous n'avez jamais eus, il faut faire ce que vous n'avez jamais fait (To get the results you have never had, you must do what you have never done.) - Pierre Ducasse, NDP Leadership Convention
- This party is suffering from electile dysfunction. - Pierre Ducasse, NDP Leadership Campaign Tour, 2002-03
