Royal Galipeau
Encyclopedia
Royal Galipeau is a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for the Ottawa—Orléans
Ottawa—Orléans
Ottawa—Orléans is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the Canadian House of Commons since 1988....

 federal constituency. He was the successful Conservative Party
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...

 candidate in the Canadian federal elections of 2006 and 2008. He was one of the Deputy Speakers of the House of Commons
Canadian House of Commons
The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

, and served two terms as a director of TVOntario
TVOntario
TVOntario, often referred to only as TVO , is a publicly funded, educational English-language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario...

 during which he became one of the founders of TFO.

City Councillor

In 1982, he was elected to Gloucester
Gloucester, Ontario
Gloucester is a suburb of and within the City of Ottawa. Gloucester Township was established in 1792 and originally included lands east of the Rideau River from the Ottawa River south to Manotick. It was incorporated as a township in 1850 and became a city in 1981...

 City Council, unseating an incumbent. On city council, he helped introduce equal opportunity hiring policies and unsuccessfully pushed to replace the term "alderman" with a gender-neutral term. In 1985, he ran for mayor of Gloucester, finishing third behind fellow councillor Harry Allen and interim mayor Mitch Owens
Mitch Owens
Mitch Owens was a city councillor and interim mayor of Gloucester, Ontario, Canada. Born in Hazelridge, Manitoba he joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1944. That same year he served on the St. Roch, during a part of its historic voyage through the Northwest Passage...

.

Community involvement

Galipeau was appointed in 2001 by the Council of the newly amalgamated city of Ottawa as Trustee of the Ottawa Public Library, where he helped introduce content-filtered Internet access to city public libraries to protect from Internet pornography on library computers. In 2004, he was the only Trustee of the previous term to be reappointed by City Council. He was twice elected as vice-chair of the Board.

Furthermore, he served on the Ottawa-Carleton Regional District Health Council, helping prepare a policy for the delivery of minority language health services. In 2005, Galipeau was involved in the East-West Light Rail Transit Corridor Environmental Assessment Committee, studying implementation of a rapid transit system across Ottawa.

One of the less known contributions by Galipeau is the addition of a stone block under the arm of a statue of the Famous Five
The Famous Five (Canada)
The Famous Five or The Valiant Five were five Canadian women who asked the Supreme Court of Canada to answer the question, "Does the word 'Persons' in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons?" in the case Edwards v...

, located on Parliament Hill, Ottawa. When asked about this stone, he stated he was concerned for the safety of tourists, who might walk into the outstretched arm after dark.

Federal politics

Galipeau was long a Liberal and served as campaign manager for the unsuccessful Liberal candidate in Carleton
Carleton (Ontario electoral district)
Carleton was a federal and provincial electoral district in Ontario, Canada, represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 1968, and in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1867 to 1987...

 in the 1995 Ontario provincial election
Ontario general election, 1995
The Ontario general election of 1995 was held on June 8, 1995, to elect members of the 36th Legislative Assembly of the province of Ontario, Canada...

 and as assistant to MP Mauril Belanger
Mauril Bélanger
Mauril A. Bélanger, PC, MP is a Member of the Canadian Parliament. He is a member of the Liberal Party. Bélanger has been involved in advocacy for the rights of Franco-Ontarians....

 and Eugene Bellemare. However, in May 2005, he decided to run for the Conservatives. The riding of Ottawa—Orléans was a Conservative target. In the 2004 federal election
Canadian federal election, 2004
The Canadian federal election, 2004 , was held on June 28, 2004 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 38th Parliament of Canada. The Liberal government of Prime Minister Paul Martin lost its majority, but was able to form a minority government after the elections...

, Walter Robinson, the high profile head of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Canadian Taxpayers Federation
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is a Canadian federally incorporated, non-profit organization and taxpayers union that claims to have over 70,000 supporters across Canada. The organization advocates lower taxes, and a reduction of what it considers to be waste in government...

, failed to capture the seat, losing to Liberal newcomer Marc Godbout
Marc Godbout
Marc Godbout is the former Canadian Member of Parliament for the Ottawa—Orléans riding. He was first elected in the 2004 Canadian federal election, representing the Liberal Party of Canada....

 by 2,800 votes. He is now the first Conservative Member of Parliament to be re-elected in Ottawa-Orleans in 136 years.

On January 23, 2006, Galipeau was elected to the House of Commons with a margin of 1,231 votes over his closest opponent. He also received 1,800 more votes than the Conservative candidate had won in the previous general election. Galipeau was re-elected on October 14, 2008, this time increasing his vote total and defeating his closest opponent by almost 4000 votes.

Electoral history

External links

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