Grand Falls, New Brunswick
He was born in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, the son of Armand Laforest. He studied at the Bathurst Technical School. Laforest worked as a barber, then as a metal polisher, machine operator and later as a foreman at a manufacturing plant. From 1979 to 1987, he owned and operated a restaurant and night club in Madawaska, Maine. He was a school bus driver in Grand Falls from 1990 to 1999. He was defeated when he ran for reelection in 2003.