leader of the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois
What position did Gilles Duceppe take between Nov 2010 and Feb 2011?
Gilles Duceppe Gilles Duceppe ( ; born July 22 , 1947 ) is a retired Canadian politician , proponent of the Quebec sovereignty movement and former leader of the Bloc Québécois . He was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Canada for over 20 years and has been the leader of the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois for 15 years in three stints : 1996 , 1997-2011 and in 2015 . He was Leader of the Official Opposition in the Parliament of Canada from March 17 , 1997 , to June 1 , 1997 . He resigned as party leader after the 2011 election , in which he lost his own seat to New Democratic Party ( NDP ) candidate Hélène Laverdière and his party suffered a heavy defeat ; however , he returned four years later to lead the party into the 2015 election . After being defeated in his own riding by Laverdière again , he resigned once more . He is the son of a well-known Quebec actor , Jean Duceppe . Early life and education . Duceppe was born in Montreal , Quebec , the son of Hélène ( née Rowley ) and actor Jean Duceppe . His maternal grandfather was John James Rowley , a Briton by birth , an Irish by descent , and a home child . Duceppe often quips of his British roots , once saying Im a bloke who turned Bloc . Duceppe has told the story of an Anglophone Grade 6 teacher slapping him after he complained about preferential treatment being given to anglophone students . Duceppe claimed he slapped the teacher back . He became a sovereigntist by the age of 20 , inspired by René Lévesque and the founding of the Mouvement Souveraineté-Association . Duceppe completed his high school studies at the Collège Mont-Saint-Louis . Duceppe then studied political science at the Université de Montréal but did not complete his program of study . While attending the Université de Montréal , he became general manager of the schools newspaper , Quartier Latin . In his youth , he advocated communism , and held membership in the Workers Communist Party of Canada ( WCP ) , a Maoist group . Duceppe later claimed that his three-year membership in the WCP was a mistake brought on by a search for absolute answers . However , during this period ( which lasted well into his thirties ) he subscribed to militant Maoist ideology and was fired from his job as a hospital orderly for belligerent activities . Duceppe even went so far as to intentionally spoil his 1980 sovereignty-association referendum ballot arguing that Québécois should instead focus their efforts on staying united to fight capitalism . Early career . Before becoming a member of Parliament , Duceppe worked as a hospital orderly and later became a trade union negotiator . In 1968 he became vice-president of the Union générale des étudiants du Québec ( General Union of Quebec Students ) and in 1970 manager of the Université de Montréal student paper , Quartier latin . In 1972 he launched his career in community and union settings , as moderator for the citizens committee of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve , then in 1977 as a representative for the Royal Victoria Hospital employees . In 1981 he became a union organizer for the Confédération des syndicats nationaux ( Confederation of National Trade Unions ) , where he became a negotiator in 1986 . Parliament . Election . In 1990 , Duceppe was elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a by-election for the eastern Montreal riding of Laurier—Sainte-Marie . He defeated Liberal Denis Coderre , who would later serve alongside Duceppe in Parliament before becoming Mayor of Montreal . Duceppe would be handily re-elected at each election from 1993 to 2008 . Tenure . Duceppe originally sat as an independent because the Bloc had not been registered by Elections Canada as a political party . All of the Blocs other Members of Parliament had crossed the floor from either the Progressive Conservative Party or the Liberal Party earlier that year . Duceppes victory demonstrated — for the first time — that the party had electoral support in Quebec and could win elections . Previously , many pundits ( and members of other parties ) predicted that the Bloc would not gain traction with ordinary voters in Quebec . Leadership of the Bloc Québécois . In 1996 , when Lucien Bouchard stepped down as Bloc leader to become leader of the Parti Québécois , Duceppe served as interim leader of the party . Michel Gauthier eventually became the official leader later that year . However , Gauthiers lack of visibility in both Quebec and English Canada coupled with his weak leadership resulted in the party forcing him out in 1997 . Duceppe won the ensuing leadership contest and became the official leader of the Bloc Québécois and Leader of the Opposition . In the 1997 general election , the Bloc lost official opposition status , slipping to third place in the House of Commons behind Preston Mannings Reform Party . During the campaign , Duceppe visited a cheese factory where he was photographed wearing a hairnet resembling a shower cap , which was widely parodied on Canadian television . The Bloc lost more support during the 2000 election , winning just 38 seats . Over this period , critics derided Duceppe as an ineffectual campaigner , though no serious challenge to his leadership emerged . When Jean Chrétien stepped down as Prime Minister , to be succeeded by Paul Martin , the Blocs fortunes improved markedly , particularly after the sponsorship scandal erupted . Duceppe strongly criticized the Liberals over the misuse and misdirection of public funds intended for government advertising in Quebec . During the elections national debates , Duceppes lucid explanations of Bloc Québécois policies and his chastising of the other national party leaders promises , resulted in both the French and English media ruling him the best speaker . In the 2004 election , Duceppes Bloc won 54 seats in the Commons , nearly equaling what it had won in its 1993 breakthrough , while Martins Liberals were reduced to a minority government . With Chrétiens departure , Duceppe became the longest-serving leader of a major party in Canada . With the recent success of the Bloc , and his recently well-received performance as leader , speculation mounted that Duceppe might seek the leadership of the Parti Québécois – particularly when Bernard Landry stepped down as party leader on June 4 , 2005 . On June 13 , 2005 , Duceppe announced that he would not run for the leadership of the PQ . Ducceppes Bloc , along with the Stephen Harpers Conservatives and Jack Laytons NDP , worked together on November 28 , 2005 to pass a motion of no confidence in the minority Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin after findings in the Sponsorship Scandal . In the resultant 2006 federal election , many Bloc insiders believed that Duceppes popularity , combined with the unpopularity of the federal Liberal Party in Quebec , would push the Bloc Québécois over the symbolic majority vote mark among Quebec voters . Many Quebec separatists felt that a strong performance by the Bloc in the 2006 federal election would boost the sovereignty movement and perhaps set the stage for a new referendum on secession after the anticipated Quebec provincial election expected in 2007 . In actuality , a late surge in Conservative and federalist support kept the Blocs share of the popular vote below 43% giving the Bloc only 51 seats . The Conservatives gains in Quebec , as well as Ontario , gave the party enough seats to form a minority government with Harper as prime minister , replacing the Liberals Paul Martin . The unimpressive and lackluster results on election night called into question the level of separatist support in Quebec . In the March 26 , 2007 Quebec provincial election , the Parti Québécois found itself reduced to third place in the National Assembly of Quebec , behind both the governing Quebec Liberal Party and the opposition Action démocratique du Québec . Following this disappointing result , the PQ leader , André Boisclair , announced his resignation on May 8 , 2007 . Duceppe confirmed on May 11 , 2007 , that he would seek the PQ leadership but the next day he withdrew from the race . After his withdrawal , Duceppe announced that he would support two-time leadership hopeful Pauline Marois . 2008 federal election . In the 2008 federal election , Duceppe led the Bloc Québécois to 49 seats , up one from its pre-dissolution standing of 48 . However , the Blocs share of the popular vote fell again , to 38% , its lowest result since 1997 . After the election , Liberals and NDP reached a deal form a minority coalition government with support from the Bloc Québécois , which would have toppled the minority Conservative government , however the Governor General agreed to prorogue parliament before the vote could take place . After prorogation , the Liberals underwent a change in leadership and distanced themselves from the coalition agreement and supported the Conservatives budget . However Duceppes Bloc and Jack Laytons NDP remained committed to voting against the Conservatives . 2011 federal election and resignation . In 2011 , the Bloc cooperated with the Liberals and NDP to find the Conservative government in Contempt of Parliament , after all three opposition parties indicated that they would not accept the Conservatives budget , leading Prime Minister Harper to request the dissolution of parliament . The Bloc demanded $5 billion for the province , including compensation for damages from the January 1998 North American ice storm and $175 million towards a new hockey arena to bring back the Quebec Nordiques , which the Conservatives dismissed outright . In the resultant 2011 federal election , the Bloc suffered a massive 43-seat loss—including many seats theyd held since their 1993 breakthrough—cutting them down to a rump of four seats . Much of that support bled to the NDP who ascended from fourth place to second place to become the Official Opposition , largely by winning 58 seats in Quebec which included a sweep of the Blocs heartlands in Quebec City and eastern Montreal . The NDP , which entered the election with only one seat in the province - Tom Mulcair - had surged in the last weeks of the campaign at the expense of the Bloc due to NDP leader Jack Laytons charismatic personality and leftist nationalism policies , while Bloc over the years defend [ ed ] Quebecs interests , but the sovereigntist agenda is no longer very relevant . Duceppe lost his own seat to NDP challenger Hélène Laverdière by 5,400 votes . Accepting responsibility for the Blocs crushing defeat , Duceppe announced his pending resignation as Bloc leader soon after the result was beyond doubt . He remained defiant , however , vowing not to rest until Quebec becomes a country . Spending allegations . In January 2012 , Duceppe was accused of having used funds designated for his parliamentary office to pay the Bloc Québécois general manager over a seven-year period . Duceppe denied any wrongdoing when testifying before the House of Commons Board of Internal Economy in February . In November 2012 , the House of Commons Board of Internal Economy found that Duceppe misused funds . However , the board cannot take disciplinary action as the money was spent before the by-laws around the issue were changed . Retirement and brief return to politics . Duceppe has worked as a political analyst since his departure from parliament . In 2014 , he denounced comments made by newly elected Bloc leader Mario Beaulieu in which he seemingly dismissed the Bloc under Duceppe as having followed a gradualist strategy for achieving sovereignty which Beaulieu characterised as defeatist and for invoking the phrase nous vaincrons ( we will vanquish ) , which was a slogan employed by the paramilitary Front de libération du Québec . After two years of further decline in the polls and internal divisions , it was announced June 10 , 2015 that Duceppe would be returning to lead the Bloc into the campaign while his successor , Mario Beaulieu would relinquish the leadership but remain party president . The party executive agreed on June 9 , 2015 , to split the positions of president and party leader in order to facilitate Duceppes return . The changes were ratified by the partys general council on July 1 . On August 1 , 2015 , it was reported that Duceppe had decided to contest his former riding of Laurier-Sainte-Marie in the upcoming federal election and that he would announce this in a press conference shortly after the election was called , which occurred on August 2 . However , while leading his party to a win of 10 seats in the October 19 , 2015 election , up from two , Duceppe was personally defeated in his riding and announced his resignation as leader several days later . Duceppes son Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe was elected to parliament in the 2019 federal election .