Line Beauchamp

Line Beauchamp
Line Beauchamp, 2010
MNA for Bourassa-Sauvé
In office November 30, 1998 – May 14, 2012
Preceded by	first member
Succeeded by	Rita de Santis
Deputy Premier of Quebec
In office September 7, 2011 – May 14, 2012
Preceded by	Nathalie Normandeau
Personal details
Born	(1963-02-24) February 24, 1963 Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Québec
Political party	Quebec Liberal Party
Residence	Montreal, Quebec

Line Beauchamp (born February 24, 1963) is a Quebec politician. She served as Member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA) for the Montreal riding of Bourassa-Sauvé as a member of the Quebec Liberal Party. Line Beauchamp was Minister of Education, Sports and Leisure until she resigned on May 14, 2012 during the 2012 Quebec student strike. Formerly Minister for Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks from April 17, 2007 to 2010, she was also the Minister of Culture and Communications from 2003 to 2007.

Life and career

Beauchamp was born in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec. Beauchamp studied at Université de Montréal and obtained a bachelor's degree in psychology in 1985. Between 1987 and 1998 she became the director of several community and social institutions including Montreal's non-profit and community radio station CIBL-FM. She was also involved heavily in business affairs and social and economic development in Montreal's east end.

Beauchamp entered provincial politics in 1998 when she was elected in the riding of Sauvé on October 30, 1998, becoming opposition critic in culture and communications. She was eventually re-elected in Bourassa-Sauvé when the Liberals regained power in the 2003 elections. She would be subsequently named Minister of Culture and Communications while also becoming minister responsible for the Montreal region for the full mandate. She would also be a member of several parliamentary committees including social, educational and cultural development, citizenship and culture and decentralization and regions. She would also participate in several organizations in regard to relations between other countries or regions including Belgium and Catalonia. During her first term, she was involved in the opening of the National Library of Quebec in downtown Montreal.

After the Liberals were re-elected in 2007 in a minority government, Jean Charest named Beauchamp Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks replacing Claude Béchard, who assumed the Natural Resources portfolio after the defeat of Pierre Corbeil. She was replaced in her Culture and Communications portfolio by former Radio-Canada journalist Christine St-Pierre, while then Economic Development Minister Raymond Bachand took Beauchamp's responsibilities in regard to affairs surrounding the Montreal region.

After the 2008 election, she kept the same portfolios and was also named Deputy House Leader to Jacques Dupuis. After a cabinet shuffle in 2010, she was named Minister of Education, Leisure and Sports, replacing Michelle Courchesne, who became president of the treasury board. Following the resignation of Nathalie Normandeau, Beauchamp also became Deputy Premier of Quebec on September 7, 2011.

Beauchamp had been the Liberals' point person in the ongoing tuition fee debate in Quebec. Her position had always remained the same from the get-go: that tuition had to be increased in order to properly fund Quebec universities. On May 14, 2012, during the student strike that had continued since February, Beauchamp resigned her ministerial positions and her seat as an MNA, claiming that she was no longer part of the solution. She was succeeded as Minister and as Deputy Premier by Michelle Courchesne, her predecessor in the education portfolio.^[1]

Electoral record (incomplete)

External links

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