Francis Scarpaleggia

Francis Scarpaleggia MP
Member of the Canadian Parliament for Lac-Saint-Louis
Incumbent
Assumed office June 28, 2004
Preceded by	Clifford Lincoln
Personal details
Born	June 6, 1957 Montreal, Quebec
Political party	Liberal
Spouse(s)	Jan Scarpaleggia
Residence	Kirkland, Quebec
Profession	business consultant/financial analyst/university professor

Francis Scarpaleggia, MP (born June 6, 1957 in Montreal, Quebec) is a member of the Liberal Party of Canada (since 1985) and Member of Parliament for the riding of Lac-Saint-Louis, which encompasses the western tip of the island of Montreal, Quebec. Scarpaleggia was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in the 2004 federal election, and was re-elected in 2006, 2008, 2011 and 2015.

Biography

Scarpaleggia, the son of Maurice and Lois Scarpaleggia, was raised in the city of Laval, as well as Mount Royal, a suburb of the City of Montreal. Scarpaleggia completed his Bachelor’s degree in economics at McGill University and his Master’s degree in economics at Columbia University in New York City before spending several years working in the private sector. Scarpaleggia holds an MBA from Concordia University, as well as a diploma in business administration from McGill.

He has held positions at Petro-Canada and Bristol-Myers Squibb, in addition to running his own company. Prior to his career in politics, Scarpaleggia was a professor of business administration at Montreal’s Dawson College, where he taught marketing, accounting and entrepreneurship.

Scarpaleggia held the position of senior political advisor to Clifford Lincoln, Member of Parliament for the riding of Lachine—Lac-Saint-Louis (1993–1997) and the more recently formed riding of Lac-Saint-Louis (1997–2004).

Scarpaleggia is married and resides in the City of Kirkland with his wife, Jan, and two children; Caroline and Mia.

Political life

2004-2006

Elected by one of the largest margins in the country in the 2004 Canadian federal election, Scarpaleggia became a member of the Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, and the Committee on Transport. He was also an associate member of the Committee of Canadian Heritage and the Committee of Environment and Sustainable Development.

Scarpaleggia voiced objections to the plans to reduce the flight attendant-to-passenger ratio on Canadian commercial flights, plans which would have been detrimental to air safety as highlighted by the crash of Air France flight 358 at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

Scarpaleggia was one of a small minority of Liberal MPs to vote against Bill C-38, which formally legalized same-sex marriage in Canada in accordance with a ruling by the judiciary.

Since October 2005, Scarpaleggia has chaired a new national Liberal caucus on water. As chair, Scarpaleggia has led the caucus as it focuses on the political, legislative, scientific, and public health issues surrounding Canada’s water supplies.

2006-2015

Re-elected with a large margin in the Canadian federal election, 2006, and one of only thirteen Liberal MPs remaining in the province of Quebec, Scarpaleggia was named Associate Critic to the Minister of Heritage. Additionally, Scarpaleggia was named to the Committee of Canadian Heritage, and the Committee of Environment and Sustainable Development.

During the 2006 Liberal Party of Canada leadership contest Scarpaleggia was one of two Quebec MPs who backed the candidacy of Stéphane Dion, who ultimately went on to win the race on December 2, 2006 at the Montreal convention centre.

Scarpaleggia once again broke with his party and voted with the Conservative government to re-open the same-sex marriage debate on December 7, 2006 (see Members of the 39th Canadian Parliament and same-sex marriage), the only Quebec Liberal MP to do so.

Scarpaleggia served as the Liberal critic for Water Policy from 2007 to 2009, and again from 2010 to 2013. From 2011 to 2013, he was also the Liberal critic for Public Safety. Since 2011, he has been the Liberal Party caucus chair.

2015-present

Following the 2015 election, the Liberals formed the government again. Scarpaleggia was named to the House of Commons Special Committee on Electoral Reform. He was subsequently elected as the chairman of the committee.^[1]

Electoral record

Canadian federal election, 2015
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Francis Scarpaleggia	39,965	64.14	+30.03	–
	Conservative	Eric Girard	10,857	17.42	-11.02	–
	New Democratic	Ryan Young	7,997	12.83	-17.23	–
	Green	Bradford Dean	1,812	2.91	-1.36	–
	Bloc Québécois	Gabriel Bernier	1,681	2.7	-0.42	–
Total valid votes/Expense limit			62,312	100.0		$224,522.81
Total rejected ballots			321	0.51	-0.02
Turnout			62,633	73.06	+6.93
Eligible voters			85,727
	Liberal hold		Swing		+23.63
Source: Elections Canada[2][3]

Canadian federal election, 2011
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Francis Scarpaleggia	18,457	34.11	-12.27
	New Democratic	Alain Ackad	16,253	30.04	+14.28
	Conservative	Larry Smith	15,394	28.45	+4.94
	Green	Bruno Tremblay	2,315	4.28	-4.30
	Bloc Québécois	Éric Taillefer	1,689	3.12	-2.62
Total valid votes/Expense limit			54,108	100.00	–
Rejected ballots			287	0.53	-0.01
Turnout			54,395	66.13	+2.10
	Liberal hold		Swing		-13.28

Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Francis Scarpaleggia	23,842	46.38	-1.8	$71,566
	Conservative	Andrea Paine	12,085	23.51	-3.2	$54,850
	New Democratic	Daniel Quinn	8,105	15.76	+5.1
	Green	Peter Graham	4,415	8.58	+1.8	$7,679
	Bloc Québécois	Maxime Clément	2,953	5.74	-2.0	$6,931
Total valid votes/Expense limit			51,400	100.00	–
Rejected ballots			277	0.54
Turnout			51,677	64.03
	Liberal hold		Swing		-2.5

Canadian federal election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Francis Scarpaleggia	25,588	48.2	-15.7	$46,751
	Conservative	Andrea Paine	14,164	26.7	+14.6	$74,919
	New Democratic	Daniel Quinn	5,702	10.7	+5.6	$8,129
	Bloc Québécois	Anne-Marie Guertin	4,064	7.7	-2.5	$9,298
	Green	Peter Graham	3,605	6.8	+1.6	$1,340
Total valid votes/Expense limit			53,123	100.0	$80,616
	Liberal hold		Swing		-215.15

Canadian federal election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Francis Scarpaleggia	32,122	63.9	-10.3	$41,498
	Conservative	Jeff Howard	6,082	12.1	-2.6	$15,262
	Bloc Québécois	Maxime Côté	5,106	10.2	+3.5	$7,084
	New Democratic	Daniel Quinn	3,789	7.5	+5.0	$6,036
	Green	Peter Graham	2,584	5.1	–	$1,808
	Marijuana	Patrick Cardinal	578	1.1	-0.6
Total valid votes/Expense limit			50,261	100.0	$79,772
	Liberal hold		Swing		-6.45

References

1. Special Committee on Electoral Reform, Parliament of Canada website, retrieved June 21, 2016.
2. Elections Canada – Confirmed candidates for Lac-Saint-Louis, 30 September 2015
3. Elections Canada – Preliminary Election Expenses Limits for Candidates

External links

• Francis Scarpaleggia – Parliament of Canada biography