Annick Papillon is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 politician, who was elected to the Canadian House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

 in the 2011 election. She represents the electoral district of Québec as a member of the New Democratic Party

New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

.

Biography

Papillon was born in Rimouski and grew up in Quebec City

Quebec City

Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...

. She earned a BA in public communications, law, and history and pursued advanced studies in journalism at Université Laval

Université Laval

Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...

. She specialized in international politics and field journalism while studying at the Université catholique de Louvain

Université catholique de Louvain

The Université catholique de Louvain, sometimes known, especially in Belgium, as UCL, is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It is located in Louvain-la-Neuve and in Brussels...

 in Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, and performed an internship at Radio-Télévision belge de la Communauté francophone. Back in Quebec, she volunteered for humanitarian organizations. At the time of her first election, she worked for the Institut de la statistique du Québec.

Running in her first campaign, she defeated incumbent Bloc Québécois

Bloc Québécois

The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party in Canada devoted to the protection of Quebec's interests in the House of Commons of Canada, and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty. The Bloc was originally a party made of Quebec nationalists who defected from the federal Progressive Conservative...

 MP Christiane Gagnon

Christiane Gagnon

Christiane Gagnon is a Canadian politician.Gagnon was born in Chicoutimi, Quebec. A real estate agent, she was first elected in the 1993 federal election. She was the Bloc Québécois candidate in the riding of Québec . She was re-elected in the Canadian federal election, 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006, and...

 with a margin of 7,709 votes in the 2011 Canadian federal election.

She also endorses Thomas Mulcair

Thomas Mulcair

Thomas J. "Tom" Mulcair is a Canadian lawyer, university professor, and politician. He is the federal Member of Parliament for Outremont, Quebec, Canada, and currently holds a seat in the New Democratic Party of Canada...

 in the New Democratic Party leadership election, 2012

New Democratic Party leadership election, 2012

An election for the leadership of the New Democratic Party , a social democratic party in Canada, will occur on March 24, 2012, as a result of the death of Jack Layton, the party's former leader. The party's executive and caucus set the rules for the campaign at a series of meetings in September 2011...