Montreal-area MP who beat ex-Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe twice won’t run again
MONTREAL — Helene Laverdiere, a self-described “accidental” NDP MP who defeated Gilles Duceppe in both the 2011 and 2015 elections, has announced she won’t run again next year.
She surprised political pundits by first beating Duceppe in the Montreal riding of Laurier-Sainte-Marie when he was Bloc Quebecois leader in 2011.
Laverdiere, 63, admits that even she was a bit surprised when she grabbed more than 46 per cent of the vote that year to oust Duceppe, who had held the riding since 1990.
“To be honest, in 2011, when I agreed to run for the NDP, I didn’t really expect to be elected,” she said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Monday.