Quebec national assembly remembers Jean Lapierre a year after his death

Quebec’s political class remembered Jean Lapierre on Wednesday, one year after the former MP and TV commentator died in a plane crash.

The national assembly adopted a motion commemorating the first anniversary of Lapierre’s death and then held a minute’s silence.

Lapierre, 59, and six other people lost their lives last March 29 when their small plane went down in the Iles-de-la-Madeleine in eastern Quebec.

Lapierre’s siblings Marc, Louis and Martine, his wife Nicole Beaulieu, pilot Pascal Gosselin and co-pilot Fabrice Labourel also died.

Plans are underway to rename a portion of Highway 112 after Lapierre in the riding of Shefford he represented for so many years.

Lapierre was a longtime Liberal and Bloc Quebecois MP who quit federal politics in 1992 but returned after Paul Martin became Liberal leader in late 2003. He served as transport minister between 2004 and ’06.

He left politics in 2007 and soon became a popular on-air personality, drawing from his long list of sources in both federal and provincial politics to offer commentary on important news events for a host of different media organizations in Quebec.