Louis Plamondon, Canada’s longest-serving MP still in office, reflected on 41 years in the House of Commons this week, praising his constituents while lamenting decades of bureaucracy. The 82-year-old Bloc Québécois MP for Bécancour-Nicolet, Que., thanked voters for their support, saying, “I owe them everything.”Blacklock's Reporter said Plamondon, first elected as a Progressive Conservative in 1984, was re-elected to his 13th term this year by 10,326 votes. Speaking in the Commons, he highlighted the everyday Canadians who inspired his work: farmers, single parents, entrepreneurs, young people, and seniors. “They are the ones who guide, who encourage, who allowed me to get through this many days as MP,” he said.He described his career as spanning 15,069 days, seven prime ministers, major reforms, economic crises, and “enough red tape to cover the Champlain Bridge twice over.” .Plamondon said serving multiple terms is “an honour that exceeds the capacity of words to describe.”Plamondon’s 41 years and two months of service puts him second only to Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, who served 44 years and 10 months before dying in office in 1919. Reflecting on his long tenure, Plamondon said, “A few years turned into a quarter of a century, then three decades… but I can say I’ve never once been bored.”He also noted the generational span of his colleagues: some MPs were in kindergarten when he was first elected, while others “hadn’t even been imagined by their parents.” Plamondon said he does not take his longevity for granted and continues to view his role as a serious responsibility.Historically, the Commons’ oldest member was William Black, a Conservative and former Minister of Railways who died in office in 1934 just shy of his 87th birthday. The oldest senator was Georges-Casimir Dessaulles, who died at 102 in 1930.
