Robert Deschamps

Robert "Bob" Deschamps (born January 6, 1940) is a politician from Quebec, Canada. He was an Action démocratique du Québec Member of the National Assembly for the electoral district of Saint-Maurice from 2007 to 2008.

Deschamps, who has a background in education, was a teacher for 24 years after obtaining a degree at the Université de Montréal and completing additional studies at St. Dunstan's University in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, where he played for the university's hockey club. He was also a director for a Montreal mining exploration company for eight years. He was also a manager and football coach in the league he founded in 1965, the Ligue de football interscolaire de Mauricie, and was involved heavily in many canoe associations regionally and provincially.

He had been a long-life supporter of the sovereignty of Quebec and was a Parti Québécois supporter and member for nearly 40 years. He unsuccessfully ran three times as a New Democratic Party candidate. His first attempt was at the provincial level in the district of Laviolette in 1976. He also ran at the federal level in the district of Saint-Maurice against Liberal Jean Chrétien in 1979 and 1993.[1]

He was elected to the National Assembly in 2007 with 38% of the vote. Parti Québécois incumbent Claude Pinard, who was running for a fourth consecutive term, finished second with 33% of the vote. Deschamps took office on April 12, 2007.[2]

In the minutes that followed his inauguration, Deschamps confirmed his intention to relocate the Aréna Jacques Plante away from the downtown area, near the École Secondaire des Chutes. Deschamps's position clearly contrasts from that of the Shawinigan city government. Mayor Lise Landry and a number of city councillors want to relocate the facility between the city's two main districts: Downtown Shawinigan and Shawinigan-Sud.[3]

Deschamps was defeated in the 2008 election. He ran as an independent candidate in the district of Trois-Rivières in the 2012 election and was defeated.[4]