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19-year-old sets record as youngest MP; NDPer planned summer job at golf course
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Candidate
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| Contributor | Craverguy |
| Last Edited | Craverguy May 03, 2011 06:06pm |
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| Category | Profile |
| Author | Sidhartha Banerjee |
| News Date | Tuesday, May 3, 2011 10:20:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | MONTREAL - Nineteen-year-old Pierre-Luc Dusseault planned to work a summer job at a golf course if his foray into federal politics didn't work out.
He can forget the links.
The teenage longshot is now headed to Ottawa as the youngest member to ever sit in Canada's federal Parliament, joining dozens of other New Democrats in Quebec who scored unlikely victories on Monday night.
Instead of working his way around the green fairways, he will learn his way around the green parquet of the House of Commons as the new MP for Sherbrooke. His new starting salary is $157,731.
Dusseault ran a grassroots campaign in the university town east of Montreal. He says he always believed he had a chance.
"I did a full-time campaign and I was there to win, I wasn't there to be a figurehead, I was involved in the debates and I was present on the ground," Dusseault said.
"I worked to win and our efforts bore fruit."
Despite the steep learning curve, he said he's ready more than ready to tackle Ottawa.
The political neophyte is co-founder and president of the NDP association at the Universite de Sherbrooke, where he finished his first year as a political science student.
Dusseault is a self-described political junkie who has already been to Ottawa and visited the House of Commons. He also admits to watching a lot of CPAC, the TV channel that broadcasts parliamentary proceedings.
"I know the game," Dusseault said confidently.
Dusseault turns 20 at the end of this month. At 19 years, 11 months, he will be the youngest MP ever to serve in Ottawa. He replaces Claude-Andre Lachance, who has held the distinction for over a quarter-century. Lachance was elected as a Trudeau Liberal in 1974 at the age of 20 years, three months, in a Montreal riding.
Coincidentally, Dusseault was also voting for the first time on Monday. His maiden exercise in democracy was a no-brainer — he simply ticked the circle next to his own name. |
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