Hélène Laverdière

NDP MP Hélène Laverdière was born in Chicoutimi but spent most of her childhood in the Montreal area. Both of her parents were politically active, her father sat on the local school board and helped organize a few mayoralty campaigns and her mother, when not looking after her six children ,was active in various community organizations. When she was 6, Hélène wanted to be a nun, just like her teacher at school but by the time she was 17, she had become a free and independent spirit that preferred the open road and the promise of adventure than the routine of the classroom. She worked as waitress in restaurants, a land surveyor ( she was the first woman to be hired at the firm that employed her) travelled to Mexico and then after a few years, decided to return to school. She did her BA, her masters and then her PhD at the University of Bath. Laverdière took a job with the foreign civil service and ended up working in Dakar, Senegal, Santiago, Chile and Washington. In 2011, she was approached to run for the NDP in Laurier-Sainte- Marie, a riding held by then Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe in downtown Montreal. In one of several surprises that election Laverdière took the riding by over 5,000 votes.
Catherine Clark spoke to Hélène Laverdière about her life Beyond Politics.