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| Photo from CBC article |
Before the election, she was employed as a bartender in Ottawa. But on May 2nd, Ruth Ellen Brosseau was elected to Parliament! Needless to say, her salary has increased significantly. Unfortunately, she was in Las Vegas during the election, partying for her birthday, which got her lots of bad publicity. Later she admitted that she didn't expect to win, and had never even been to her riding (Berthier-Maskinongé) before! Obviously she was elected simply because she was the NDP candidate in her Quebec riding and the province was rapidly turning orange.
Then the NDP got even more bad publicity because they said that she had a diploma in "Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications" from St. Lawrence College in Kingston, but she didn't actually graduate!
The media also jumped on her because she doesn't speak French. I don't think that every MP has to be able to speak French, but it is pretty important if you're representing a mainly Francophone riding in Quebec! To be fair though, she's currently taking intensive French lessons so she can actually understand what her constituents are saying.
It's good to have young, new MPs in Parliament, but so far she seems very unprofessional. All the same, I think we need give her a chance. New MPs can bring freshness, change, and hopefully respect to our Parliament, and we shouldn't judge people before they've started! In her case, though, cross your fingers... this is going to be interesting!
