Yvon Godin

Yvon Godin
File:Yvon Godin 2014-05-05.jpg Yvon Godin in 2014
Shadow Minister for Labour
In office May 26, 2011 – April 18, 2012
Leader	Jack Layton Nycole Turmel
Preceded by	Maria Minna
Succeeded by	Alexandre Boulerice
Member of Parliament for Acadie—Bathurst
Incumbent
Assumed office June 2, 1997
Preceded by	Doug Young
Succeeded by	Serge Cormier
Personal details
Born	(1955-05-12) May 12, 1955 Bathurst, New Brunswick
Political party	NDP
Spouse(s)	Lyna Mainville
Residence	Bathurst, New Brunswick
Profession	miner, labour representative
Website	http://yvongodin.ndp.ca/

Yvon Godin (born May 12, 1955) is a Canadian politician.

Godin was a New Democratic Party (NDP) Member of Parliament (MP) in the Canadian House of Commons, representing the riding of Acadie—Bathurst from 1997 until his retirement in 2015. Previously, Godin was a labour representative for the United Steelworkers. He was the NDP critic for Labour and Official Languages in his last term in parliament.

In 2003, he supported Bill Blaikie's campaign to lead the NDP.

Involvement with the New Brunswick NDP

As federal MP, Godin had a strained relationship with former New Brunswick New Democratic Party leader Elizabeth Weir. Following her resignation in 2005, however, there were rumours that Godin might resign his federal seat and run to replace her as provincial party leader at the party's 2005 leadership convention. Ultimately, Godin declined to stand as a candidate, and Allison Brewer was elected NB NDP leader.

Following a poor showing in the 2006 New Brunswick provincial election, Brewer also resigned, and there were renewed rumours Godin would seek the leadership. However Godin demurred again, instead endorsing former priest Roger Duguay. Duguay had run in the provincial riding of Miramichi Bay-Neguac in the last provincial election, and received 26.2% of the vote, the best showing of any NDP candidate. The Miramichi Bay-Neguac riding overlaps with Godin's federal riding. Duguay was subsequently elected leader at the party's October 13, 2007 leadership convention but resigned after a disappointing result in the 2010 provincial election

Godin also had a strained relationship with Duguay's successor, Dominic Cardy. Following the 2014 provincial election, Godin criticized Cardy's leadership saying that Cardy had moved the provincial party too far to the centre. “The problem, I think, with the provincial party, with Dominic, was that I think he was too much to the right to even be in the centre, and I think people read into that," said Godin who added: “I think it did hurt the party. People were looking for the NDP, they were doing really well, and [voters] wanted change from the existing parties that we have now, who are serving the big corporations and forgetting about the people. I think that’s what happened.” Cardy retorted by accusing Godin of failing to involve himself in the development of the provincial party's platform, saying “He’s never been to a provincial party meeting during my time as leader.”

Claim of breached privilege

In September 2014, Godin claimed that his privileges as a Member were breached when he was delayed in accessing the Parliamentary precinct during an official visit by German President Joachim Guack. In a committee meeting on October 21, video evidence was presented that showed Godin was delayed in crossing the street by just 70 seconds. In response, Godin demanded to know whether the video had been sped up.

Electoral record

Canadian federal election, 2011
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	New Democratic	Yvon Godin	32,067	69.69	+12.27
	Conservative	Louis Robichaud	7,456	16.20	-2.39
	Liberal	Jean Marie Gionet	6,491	14.11	-7.86
Total valid votes/Expense limit			46,014	100.00	$82,557
Total rejected ballots			595	1.33
Turnout			46,609	70.71
Electors on the lists			65,915
	New Democratic hold		Swing		+7.33

Canadian federal election, 2008
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	New Democratic	Yvon Godin	25,740	57.4
	Liberal	Odette Robichaud	9,850	22.0
	Conservative	Jean-Guy Dubé	8,336	18.6
	Green	Michelle Aubin	904	2.0
Total valid votes			44,830

Canadian federal election, 2006
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	New Democratic	Yvon Godin	25,195	49.90	-8.28
	Liberal	Marcelle Mersereau	15,504	30.71	+3.34
	Conservative	Serge Savoie	8,513	16.86	+5.05
	Green	Philippe Rouselle	699	1.38	-1.27
	Independent	Eric Landry	362	0.72	Ø
	Independent	Ulric Degrace	219	0.43	Ø
Total valid votes			50,492

Canadian federal election, 2004
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	New Democratic	Yvon Godin	23,857	58.18	+11.57
	Liberal	Serge Rousselle	11,222	27.37	-12.90
	Conservative	Joel Bernard	4,841	11.81	-1.32
	Green	David Fullerton	1,085	2.65	Ø
Total valid votes			41,005

Change from 2000 is based on redistributed results. Conservative Party change is based on the combination of Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party totals.

Canadian federal election, 2000
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	New Democratic	Yvon Godin	23,568	46.61	+6.08
	Liberal	Bernard Thériault	20,362	40.27	+4.91
	Progressive Conservative	Alcide Leger	4,321	8.55	-15.56
	Alliance	Jean Gauvin	2,314	4.58	Ø
Total valid votes			50,565

Canadian federal election, 1997
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%
	New Democratic	Yvon Godin	21,113	40.53	+34.57
	Liberal	Doug Young	18,421	35.36	-30.99
	Progressive Conservative	Norma Landry	12,560	24.11	-3.58
Total valid votes			52,094

External links

• Yvon Godin – Parliament of Canada biography