Stephen Blais

Stephen Blais (born July 20, 1980) is the Member of Provincial Parliament for Orléans for the Ontario Liberal Party since winning a by-election on February 27, 2020.

Stephen Blais

MPP
Stephen Blais promoting the 2018 OC Transpo Christmas Food Drive
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament
for Orléans
Assumed office
February 27, 2020
Preceded byMarie-France Lalonde
Ottawa City Councillor
In office
December 1, 2010 – March 5, 2020
Preceded byRob Jellett
ConstituencyCumberland Ward
Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board Trustee
In office
December 1, 2006 – November 30, 2010
Preceded byDes Curley
Succeeded byBrian Coburn
ConstituencyZone 3 (Orléans & Cumberland)
Personal details
Born (1980-07-20) July 20, 1980
Ottawa
Political partyOntario Liberal Party
Spouse(s)Marta Blais
Websitehttps://www.stephenblais.ca

Before being elected to the Ontario legislature, he was Ottawa City Councillor for Cumberland Ward. He won the ward in the 2010 Ottawa municipal election, defeating the incumbent Rob Jellett. In the 2014 Ottawa municipal election, Blais was re-elected with a large majority, defeating Marc Belisle. In the 2018 Ottawa municipal election, Blais was re-elected with over 89% of the vote—the highest majority of the night.

Early life

Blais was born in Ottawa and grew up in the Queenswood Heights neighbourhood of Orléans in the former Cumberland Township. Upon graduating from St. Peter Catholic High School, he attended the University of Ottawa to pursue a Bachelor of Social Sciences.

Following university, he served as Executive Assistant to Jim Watson while Watson served in the Ontario Cabinet. Blais later moved to Carleton University where he worked as a media and communications advisor.

Blais and his wife Marta have one son, Stephen Jr. They live in the Chaperal neighbourhood.[1]

Community involvement

Blais is the past president of the Queenswood Heights Community Association and a former members of the Cumberland Lions Club.

Prior to being elected as a councillor, Blais served as an Ottawa Catholic School Board Trustee for Orléans-Cumberland. He was first elected as a Trustee in 2006 when he defeated the incumbent.

Ottawa City Council

In 2010, Blais was elected the third Ottawa City Councillor for Cumberland Ward defeating the two-term incumbent. He quickly made his mark securing early victories by having the City of Ottawa conduct an environmental assessment to widen HWY 174 and to extend Light Rail Transit to Orléans.

In addition to his focus on reducing commute times through investments in roads and transit, Blais prioritized local park construction. In his first term of office, seven new parks were built in Cumberland Ward and Blais announced a plan to partner with the local homebuilding industry to complete an $8 million expansion of Millennium Park.[2]

Blais was named Chair of the City of Ottawa Transit Commission on December 10, 2014. The Transit Commission is the body charged with oversight of the City's public transit provider OC Transpo.

The Transit Commission is responsible for ensuring the development of a safe, efficient, accessible, and client-focused transit system and for providing overall guidance and direction to the Transit Services Department on all issues relating to the operation of public transit, including the O-Train and Para Transpo. The Transit Commission consists of eight members of Council and four citizen members, as approved by Council. The Transit Commission meets on a monthly basis in a public forum.[3]

Provincial politics

In October 2019, Blais announced that he would be seeking the Liberal nomination for the provincial riding of Orléans, which had been left vacant when Marie-France Lalonde stepped down to run for the federal Liberal Party.[4] He won the nomination on November 9.[5] Blais won the February 27 by-election with 55 per cent of the vote, defeating his nearest rival, Progressive Conservative candidate Natalie Montgomery, by more than 8,000 votes.[6]

Election results

Provincial, 2020-present
Ontario provincial by-election, February 27, 2020: Orléans
Resignation of Marie-France Lalonde
Party Candidate Votes%±%
LiberalStephen Blais14,30355.01+15.96
Progressive ConservativeNatalie Montgomery5,94522.87−12.33
New DemocraticManon Parrot3,88814.95−6.99
GreenAndrew West1,5275.87+3.37
LibertarianJean-Serge Brisson1770.68+0.06
None of the AboveKeegan Bennett1000.38
PauperJohn Turmel320.12
Ontario AllianceGerrie Huenemoerder280.11
Total valid votes 26,000
Total rejected ballots
Turnout 23.53−39.24
Eligible voters 110,519
Liberal hold Swing +14.15

Municipal, 2006-2018

2018

Ward 19 - Cumberland
Candidate Votes %
Stephen Blais (X) 11,230 89.08%
Cameron Rose Jette 741 5.88%
Jensen Boire 636 5.04%

2014

Ward 19 - Cumberland
Candidate Votes %
Stephen Blais (X) 9,446 78.03%
Marc Belisle 2,659 21.96%

2010

Ward 19 - Cumberland
Candidate Votes %
Stephen Blais 6,358 52.36
Rob Jellett (X) 5,282 43.49%
Patrick Paquette 504 4.15

2006

Zone 3 (Wards 1, 19)
Candidate Votes %
Stephen Blais 3,124 55.30%
Des Curley (X) 2,525 44.70%
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gollark: Soon: "You need to pay 99c to run this command: "python". Click here to open your iTunes. Pay faster with iPhone and Apple pay!"
gollark: This is probably just yet another step toward preventing users from running any non-Apple-approved binaries and more erosion of general purpose computing.
gollark: As someone put it:> Don't think so? Apple now theoretically has a centralized database of every Mac user who's ever used youtube-dl. Or Tor. Or TrueCrypt.
gollark: As well as the speed issue there are also obvious privacy implications.

References
  1. Jon Willing (October 22, 2018). "Ottawa Votes: What you need to know about the candidates in Cumberland". Ottawa Citizen.
  2. Jon Willing (April 16, 2014). "Plans underway for $8M east-end Ottawa park". Ottawa Sun.
  3. "Facts Brochure" (PDF). OC Transpo.
  4. Chianello, Joanne (October 10, 2019). "Blais running for Liberal nomination in Orléans". CBC News. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
  5. Duffy, Andrew (November 9, 2019). "Orléans Liberals nominate Coun. Stephen Blais for provincial byelection". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
  6. "Stephen Blais keeps Orléans Liberal red". Ottawa: CBC News. February 27, 2020. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
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