Catherine Fournier (Canadian politician)

Catherine Fournier
Catherine Fournier in 2018
Mayor of Longueuil
Assumed office
November 14, 2021[1]
Preceded bySylvie Parent
Member of the National Assembly of Quebec for Marie-Victorin
In office
December 5, 2016 – November 7, 2021
Preceded byBernard Drainville
Succeeded byShirley Dorismond
Personal details
Born (1992-04-07) 7 April 1992 (age 32)[2]
Sainte-Julie, Quebec
NationalityCanadian
Political partyIndependent (2019–2021)
Other political
affiliations
Parti Québécois (before 2019) Coalition Longueuil (2021-present)

Catherine Fournier (born 7 April 1992) is a Canadian politician, who was elected as mayor of Longueuil on November 7, 2021. She is the third female mayor in the city's history.

She was previously member of the National Assembly of Quebec, having been elected in a by-election on December 5, 2016 at the age of 24.[3] She represented the electoral district of Marie-Victorin. Fournier was the youngest member of the National Assembly, and the youngest woman ever elected to that body.[4]

Originally elected as a member of the Parti Québécois, Fournier won a full term in 2018 even amid the PQ's meltdown in Greater Montreal; she was the only surviving PQ member from the metro area. However, she quit the PQ on March 11, 2019 to sit as an independent MNA. She believed the party had lost its way ideologically, though she still considers herself a committed sovereigntist.[5][6]

Before her election to the National Assembly, Fournier ran for the Bloc Québécois in the 2015 federal election in the riding of Montarville, finishing second. After her defeat, she was named as the party's vice-president. A few weeks later, Fournier left the Bloc Quebecois position to join Parti Quebecois as a political attaché of PQ leader Pierre Karl Péladeau.[7]

  1. ^ "Cérémonie de prestation de serment des nouvelles élues et nouveaux élus de Longueuil".
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference JDM five was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ "PQ wins two of four by-elections; status quo remains". CTV Montreal, December 5, 2016.
  4. ^ "PQ wins 2 byelections, keeps Pierre Karl Péladeau's seat | CBC News". CBC. Retrieved Mar 19, 2019.
  5. ^ "PQ may have no future, youth wing members say in open letter". The Canadian Press. March 11, 2019. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  6. ^ "'They've lost their way': PQ MNA Catherine Fournier quits party". CTV Montreal. March 11, 2019. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  7. ^ ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Politique- (2015-11-30). "La bloquiste Catherine Fournier se joint au cabinet de PKP | Radio-Canada.ca". Radio-Canada (in Canadian French). Retrieved 2023-07-23.