Richard Legendre

Richard Legendre (born January 19, 1953 in Montreal, Quebec) is a former professional tennis player and politician in Quebec, Canada.

Tennis

Legendre once represented Canada at the Davis Cup and had a career-high tennis ranking of World No. 232 in singles (December 1978). He played NCAA collegiate tennis at Florida State University in 1972 and 1973.^[1]

Politics

He was the Quebec minister of sports in Bernard Landry's cabinet, after being elected as a Member of the National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Blainville in 2001. In 2005 he was a candidate in the Parti Québécois's leadership election, a bid notably supported by former Quebec minister François Legault and sprinter and olympic medalist Bruny Surin. Legendre placed third with 7.5% of the vote.

In the 2007 elections, Legendre was surprisingly defeated by the Action democratique du Quebec's Pierre Gingras who was a former mayor for the City of Blainville. The party nearly won every seat in the lower Laurentians region.^[2] He is currently Vice-President of Montreal Impact; he was nominated on August 13, 2007.^[3]

Electoral record (partial)

Quebec provincial by-election, October 1, 2001: Blainville
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Parti Québécois	Richard Legendre	10,323	46.25
	Liberal	Jocelyne Roch	8,990	40.28
	Action démocratique	Michel Paulette	2,186	9.79
	Bloc Pot	Sylvain Mainville	384	1.72
	Alternative progressiste	Thérèse Hamel	339	1.52
	Independent	Régent Millette	97	0.44
Total valid votes			22,319	98.63
Rejected and declined votes			309	1.37
Turnout			22,628	48.58
Electors on the lists			46,581
Source: Elections Quebec

References

External links

Richard Legendre at the Association of Tennis Professionals
"Biography". Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French). National Assembly of Quebec.
Bilan du Siècle biography
Official site of the Legendre leadership campaign