Gendron decides to call it a career
The longest-serving member of Quebec’s legislature is retiring. François Gendron announced on Saturday that he won’t be running for re-election this fall. Gendron, 73, was first elected to the legislature in 1976 as a member of René Lévesque’s Parti Québécois government. He told The Canadian Press on Friday that he never expected to be elected and thought he would soon be returning to his teaching career. “I was leaving for one mandate, for a couple of mandates,” he said. Instead, he spent 42 years in the legislature, where he served as education minister in the 1980s and was deputy premier between 2012 and 2014. His work within the Lévesque government at the beginning of his career motivated him to stay in politics, and circumstances meant he stayed away from his teaching job for good.
“Not because I didn’t like it, but the situation had changed,” he said.
Gendron made the announcement Saturday in front of “his people” in La Sarre. He said he’s still healthy, but trips in planes and cars started to tire him and he didn’t feel capable of handling another fouryear mandate.
During his career, Gendron held many positions: minister of public works, education, natural resources and agriculture. He was interim leader of the PQ, and chair of the National Assembly.
He was never premier, though. He thought about it, he said, but “not for long.”
“I don’t think I had the disposition,” he said. “I’m a regionalist, I don’t have support in the metropolis that I know well and love.”
Asked if politicians today have it harder than before, Gendron quickly answers yes.
“There’s a lot less respect for those who do it,” he said.