QUEBEC – A former Quebec cabinet minister announced Thursday that he is quitting politics.
David Whissell, Liberal MNA for Argenteuil riding northwest of Montreal since 1998, resigned today.
After 14 years in politics, he says that he is looking for new challenges.
Whissell has come under fire over reports of untendered public contracts to a paving company he co-owns.
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Although Michel Rochette, communications director of the Quebec Liberal Party, said Whissell wanted to devote more time to his family and his business.
Whissell was named labour minister in 2007, but resigned from cabinet two years later amid conflict-of-interest allegations.
Premier Jean Charest gave him the choice of renouncing his government paving contracts or leaving the provincial cabinet.
Whissell chose to resign as minister, keeping his interest in a paving company which received government paving contracts without bids.
He defended what opposition members saw as a conflict of interests, saying his paving interest was in a blind trust.
Whissell’s departure leaves Jean Charest’s Liberals with 64 members in the 125-seat national assembly and reduces the premier’s thin majority to four.
With files from Kevin Dougherty, The Gazette
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