College says rookie NDP MP Brosseau doesn’t have diploma
YouTube - Ruth Ellen Brosseau NDP mystery - mystère NPD
The NDP was dealing with a fresh controversy involving its new MP in Berthier-Maskinongé, Ruth Ellen Brosseau, amid allegations she lied on her resume.
In her official biography on the NDP website, Ms. Brosseau says she holds a diploma in Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications from St. Lawrence College.
Yesterday, the party unveiled a new official biography, featuring a more professional photo of the 27-year-old single mother and dropping a reference to her academic credentials after officials from the college said Ms. Brosseau had never graduated.
“We can confirm that Ruth Ellen Brosseau is not a graduate of St. Lawrence College,” Gord MacDougall the school’s vice-president of Student and External Affairs, told the Kingston Whig-Standard on Tuesday.
Ms. Brosseau made headlines during the federal election after the party confirmed she had taken a trip to Las Vegas in the midst of the campaign. An anglophone who ran a non-existent campaign in the rural and largely francophone riding north of Montreal, Ms. Brosseau’s landslide win came as a shock to both the party and their candidate, who had been working as an assistant manager at a pub on Ottawa’s Carleton University campus.
Residents of Berthier-Maskinongé were still waiting to meet their new MP yesterday, but instead woke up Saturday morning to a recorded voice message from Ms. Brosseau.
In a message to the 110,000 residents, NDP leader Jack Layton introduced Ms. Brosseau as a hard-working MP who was ready to represent the needs of her constituents, according to an audio clip of the message posted on the website of the newspaper Le Nouvelliste.
Then in halting, but grammatically correct, French, Ms. Brosseau told residents that as a mother she understood the challenges of raising a family and would be a strong voice for local concerns in the House of Commons.
In an interview with Le Nouvelliste last week, Ms. Brosseau admitted she had never visited the riding and party officials said they were helping the new politician to brush up on her rusty French. The party has promised that Ms. Brosseau will soon visit the riding, which includes portions of the city of. Trois-Rivières.
New official photo of NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau
The region’s defeated Bloc Quebecois MP, Guy, André said he respect his defeat at the hands of an absentee candidate, but criticized Ms. Brosseau for opting for a recorded phone message over a visit to the area. “I don’t think that’s what people want to receive, he told the newspaper in French. They want to see people. She will have to start providing services to the population.”
In an e-mail to the National Post, Karl Belanger, press secretary to Mr. Layton, said the party had sent out a phone message to every person in the riding because “it was a very effective way to reach a maximum of people directly in a timely fashion.”
“The feedback has been very positive,” he said. ”She will be visiting the riding soon.”
National Post
