Alexandre Boulerice

Alexandre Boulerice was born June 18, 1973,^[2] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[3]

Alexandre Boulerice has been active in the New Democratic Party 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.^{[citation needed]}

In the May 2, 2011, federal election, the NDP received 30.6 per cent of the votes, 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 per cent of the vote, finishing 9,700 votes ahead of Bigras.^[4] 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.^[5]

In the 2012 leadership election, he supported Brian Topp.^[6]

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.^[7] He also served as one of two New Democrats on the Special Committee on Electoral Reform.^{[citation needed]}

Following the 2016 federal NDP convention's non-confidence vote in Tom Mulcair's leadership, various media outlets mentioned Alexandre Boulerice as a potential candidate, 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^[8] and did not back any of the remaining candidates (Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton, Guy Caron, or eventual victor Jagmeet Singh) after Julian withdrew^[9] from the race.

In early 2017, Boulerice was named Finance critic for the NDP.^{[citation needed]}

He was re-elected in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections and was subsequently the only NDP MP returned from Quebec.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[16] He had previously mulled a run for the leadership of Projet Montréal ahead of the 2025 Montreal municipal election.^[17]

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 has proposed an amendment to create an exception to the rule for the constituency of Gouin.^[18][19] 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.^[20]