Alexandre Boulerice

Alexandre Boulerice (; born June 18, 1973) is a Canadian politician who was the member of parliament (MP) for the riding of Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie in the House of Commons of Canada from 2011 to 2026 as a member of the New Democratic Party (NDP). Boulerice was the NDP's deputy leader from 2019 to 2026 and formerly served as its Quebec lieutenant.

Early life and career Alexandre Boulerice was born June 18, 1973, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. He started working at age 15 as a lifeguard for the municipality and then went on to become pool manager. After his CEGEP years, he studied sociology at the Université de Montréal and completed graduate coursework in political science at McGill University, though he did not earn a master's degree.

Subsequently, he worked as a TV journalist (LCN, TVA), while being involved in his local union as vice-president of local 687 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). He has also worked for a community group, l'Union des travailleurs et travailleuses accidentés de Montréal (UTTAM). He then became a communications consultant for CUPE.

Federal politics

Boulerice had been active in the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) since the late 1990s. He first ran in the 2008 federal election and finished in third with 16.26 percent of the vote, well behind Bloc Québécois incumbent Bernard Bigras. He then became the vice president of communications for the Quebec section of the NDP, under the presidency of Françoise Boivin.

In the 2011 federal election, the NDP received 30.6 percent of the vote nationally, which translated into 103 seats in the House of Commons, of which more than half (fifty-nine) were from Quebec. This result allowed the NDP to form the Official Opposition in the House of Commons for the first time in Canadian history. This electoral breakthrough is now known as "la vague orange" (Orange Wave). One of those seats belonged to Boulerice, who won a decisive victory with 50.8 percent of the vote, finishing 9,700 votes ahead of Bigras. The NDP had never finished higher than third in the riding or its predecessors before.

On May 26, 2011, NDP leader Jack Layton appointed Boulerice to the Shadow Cabinet as opposition critic for the Treasury Board of Canada. In April 2012, new leader Tom Mulcair reassigned him to be Labour critic, and then as deputy Ethics and Access to Information critic.

In the 2012 leadership election, he supported Brian Topp.

After the 2015 election, in which the NDP fell back to third place in the federal seat count and the Liberal Party won a majority government, Mulcair appointed Boulerice to be the NDP's Quebec lieutenant, as well as its critic for Ethics and deputy critic for Democratic Reform in the 42nd Canadian Parliament. He also served as one of two New Democrats on the Special Committee on Electoral Reform.

Following the 2016 federal NDP convention's non-confidence vote in Tom Mulcair's leadership, various media outlets mentioned Boulerice as a potential candidate in the leadership election, including The Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press, and columnists such as Lysiane Gagon. CBC TV quoted him a few days after the convention as saying it was "too early" to decide whether to run. He eventually supported Peter Julian's candidacy and did not back any of the remaining candidates (Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton, Guy Caron, or eventual victor Jagmeet Singh) after Julian withdrew from the race.

In early 2017, Boulerice was named finance critic for the NDP. He was re-elected in the 2019, 2021, and 2025 federal elections. From 2019 until 2026, Boulerice was the only NDP MP from Quebec, and from 2025, was the only NDP MP from east of Winnipeg.

Bill C-307 In fall 2011, Boulerice tabled Bill C-307, a private member's bill "For the reassignment of pregnant and lactating women", to protect the rights of pregnant and lactating women who must leave their jobs to protect their health or the health of their child. This bill was intended to allow all workers to receive a reassignment under the provisions in force in their respective provinces. Quebec workers covered by the Labour Code of Quebec can receive benefits from the Workplace Health and Safety (OSH) in the program, "For safe motherhood." This bill was intended to allow workers covered by the Labour Code of Canada receive the same benefits and not be penalized during their pregnancy.

This bill was rejected with 169 votes against and 108 votes in favour in May 2012.

Canada Post In December 2013, Canada Post's board of directors announced that it would be gradually putting an end to door-to-door mail delivery, leading to the elimination of 6,000 to 8,000 jobs. Boulerice was one of the first to oppose the cuts by promptly launching a petition to inform citizens of the consequences of such a decision. Bolstered by broad public mobilization and mounting political reactions, he collaborated with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers to tour Quebec in order to explain the changes and to garner support against the decision. He ended his campaign by submitting a brief before the Commission sur le développement social et la diversité of the City of Montreal, which studied the impacts of ending door-to-door mail delivery on the installation of community mailboxes in densely populated areas, and on the quality of life of seniors and disabled people.

Vimy Ridge comments On April 10, 2007, Boulerice wrote on a Quebec left-wing politics blog, Presse-Toi A Gauche, praising those who objected to and actively resisted Canada's participation in the First World War, which he described as "a purely capitalist war on the backs of the workers and peasants". Boulerice further criticised the commemoration of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, led by the Conservative government under then Prime Minister Stephen Harper, saying that "thousands of poor wretches were slaughtered to take possession of a hill."

Provincial politics In the 2003 Quebec general election, Boulerice ran as a Union des forces progressistes candidate in Saint-Jean, receiving 1.48% of the vote.

In February 2026, it was reported that Boulerice was seeking to be the Québec solidaire candidate in Gouin, which largely overlaps Boulerice's federal riding, in the fall 2026 Quebec provincial election. He had previously mulled a run for the leadership of Projet Montréal ahead of the 2025 Montreal municipal election. However, the party's rules stipulate that the candidate in that constituency must be a woman or non-binary, automatically disqualifying Boulerice. The QS executive proposed an amendment to create an exception to the rule for the constituency of Gouin. An exception to the party's rules, to allow Boulerice to run in Gouin, was approved on February 21, 2026, with 74 per cent of delegates voting in favour. On April 27, 2026, Boulerice confirmed that he will be resigning his House of Commons seat to run provincially for Québec solidaire. He remained in parliament as an Independent MP until August 26.

Electoral record Federal

+3.57

Provincial