Home > Pierre Ducasse

He grew up in Sept-Îles, Quebec, and studied at Laval University. 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's convention in Winnipeg in November 2001.

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 leadership convention in Toronto was acclaimed as one of the most eloquent since the days of Tommy Douglas. It famously caused Ken Georgetti , president of the Canadian Labour Congress, to endorse Ducasse on 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.

The speech also made his slogan a household phrase among New Democrats: 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.)

Ducasse was also the NDP candidate for the 2004 Canadian federal electionA Canadian federal election (more formally, the 38th general election was held on June 28, 2004. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections. The main opposition pa in his home riding of Manicouagan. He finished third in a race won by Gérard AsselinGerard Asselin (born April 19, 1950, in Ste-Flavie, Quebec) is a Canadian politician. Asselin is currently a Bloc Quebecois member of the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Manicouagan since 2004 and Charlevoix from 1993 to 2003. Asseli of the

External links

• Pierre Ducasse campaign website
• Ducasse's speech to the leadership convention