Former MP who went to Sin City during 2011 election campaign was once at the heart of elbowgate with Justin Trudeau
Former MP who went to Sin City during 2011 election campaign was once at the heart of elbowgate with Justin Trudeau
Perhaps in hopes of kindling some support in Quebec, the NDP announced former parliamentarian Ruth Ellen Brosseau — dubbed “Vegas Girl” when first elected as a 27-year-old in 2011 — as its candidate for the riding of Berthier—Maskinongé.
In a post to social media channels Sunday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said the two-time MP “couldn’t just stand by” as Canadians are struggling with fewer services, increased living costs and the threat to farming and industry presented by U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive trade policies.
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“Because when things get tough, she steps up,” he wrote.
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But who is the two-time legislator who was once accidentally elbowed in the chest by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the House of Commons?
Why do they call her Vegas girl?
In 2011, Brosseau was a 26-year-old single mother working at Oliver’s Pub on the Carleton University campus in Ottawa when she was approached about being a paper candidate — someone on the ballot in name only to represent the NDP and give electors a choice.
The NDP were parachuting her in to replace the nominated candidate, Julie Demers, who party brass had moved to Bourassa, where she would eventually lose to Liberal Denis Coderre.
Brosseau, a native of Kingston, Ont., agreed, only to leave Canada during the campaign for a pre-booked trip to Las Vegas to celebrate her 27th birthday.
At the time, the media highlighted that Brosseau wasn’t fluent in French, had never set foot in the riding north of the Saint Lawrence between Montreal and Trois-Rivières, opted not to campaign and was not giving interviews.
“We had journalists camp out at my place for a while. My son found it really difficult. He was about 10 years old at the time. He was scared to go outside,” she told the Ottawa Citizen in 2014.
It mattered little to voters in Quebec who elected her and 58 other NDP candidates in a surge of support under Jack Layton’s popular leadership. Brosseau, without spending any money on her campaign, took the seat with nearly 40 per cent of the popular vote, ousting three-time Bloc Québécois incumbent Guy André in the predominantly Francophone riding.
“The people in my riding could have stayed home, or they could have spoiled their ballots. I think they were voting for something,” she said in a 2015 Chatelaine story. “So I never doubted my obligation to represent them. I wanted their votes to matter, and I wanted to do them justice.”
How long was she in Parliament?
Brosseau quickly found her footing in both her riding and the House of Commons.
Having grown up speaking French at home, her fluency quickly improved with regular lessons from Layton’s former tutor.
Meanwhile, when not on Parliament Hill under the tutelage of mentor and veteran MP Jean Crowder, Brosseau was in her riding learning about it and its constituents.
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By the time she turned 30, she had risen with the party ranks to become NDP caucus vice-chair and its deputy critic on agriculture and agrifood.
Brosseau was re-elected in 2015, eclipsing the Bloc Québécois candidate Yves Perron by a wider margin than in her 2011 victory. Former leader Thomas Mulcair promoted her to the party’s official agriculture and agrifood critic and Jagmeet Singh made her NDP house leader when he took over in 2018. (Brosseau had endorsed Guy Caron in the leadership contest.)
Perron and the Bloc flipped the seat in 2019, winning by 1,500 votes, and Brosseau lost by less than 1,000 votes in the 2021 mid-pandemic election.
What happened with her and Justin Trudeau in “Elbowgate”?
Brosseau found herself back in headlines in 2016 when she was inadvertently elbowed in the chest by Trudeau during a somewhat heated moment on the House floor.
Footage from the Commons television feed shows the Liberal leader trying to pull Conservative Party of Canada House leader Gord Brown through a group of NDP MPs who were trying to delay a vote on a bill related to doctor-assisted death.
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In the process, Trudeau’s elbow struck Brosseau, who reacted visibly as she was forced up against a desk.
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“The prime minister intentionally walked over, swore at us, reached between a few members of Parliament to grab the (Conservative) whip … how did he think he wasn’t going to hit anybody else?” she said in a 2016 interview with The Canadian Press.
Trudeau quickly offered Brosseau apologies in the moment and did so repeatedly in the aftermath, all of which she accepted.
“In my haste, I did not pay attention to my surroundings and as a result I made physical contact with the member from Berthier—Maskinongé, something I regret profoundly, for which I regret unreservedly,” the prime minister said in the House the next day
A parliamentary committee tasked with looking into the incident cleared him of any wrongdoing, bringing an end to what became known on social media as “Elbowgate.”
What has she been doing since leaving office?
Before her 2021 bid to reclaim the seat, Brosseau told reporters she’d spent the previous two years working on her partner Nicolas Guathier’s farm in Yamachiche, Que.
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Her LinkedIn account lists her profession as agricultrice (farmer) and includes her time in the House, but is otherwise inactive. Official Twitter and Facebook accounts have been dormant since she lost in the last election.
In 2023, her story of being thrust into politics inspired a French drama-comedy series called La candidate on Radio-Canada owned Tou.tv.
Lead character Alix is a single mom and nail technician with no experience or interest in politics who, against all odds, defeats the heavily favoured incumbent and embarks on a political career.
As for why she’s running again, in a statement issued to the Montreal Gazette, Brosseau echoed Singh’s, saying crises facing the people of her riding need attention.
“I couldn’t sit on my hands and do nothing. I know what the region’s producers and businesses are going through, and it’s important for me to do everything I can to defend them and improve their quality of life.”
National Post has contacted the NDP for more information about Brosseau and her campaign.
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