Mathieu Allard

Mathieu Allard (born in St. Boniface, Manitoba) is a young politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was the New Democratic Party candidate for the riding of St. Boniface in the 2004 and 2006 elections.

Allard has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Sociology from the Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface. During the 2004 election, he was working towards completion of a Master's Degree in public administration at the University of Manitoba. He was also a weight-lifter at the 1999 Canada Winter Games, and trained for two years as a boxer. [http://www.cbc.ca/canadavotes/riding/222/] He is fluently bilingual in French and English.

Allard has served as a constituency assistant for two MLAs in the provincial New Democratic Party. He lost to Liberal candidate Raymond Simard in both 2004 and 2006. He now works as assistant to Dan Vandal, the city councilor for St. Boniface.

A dedicated user and supporter of free software, he has worked to introduce it to the Government of Manitoba and to the NDP; he has proposed a resolution supporting its consideration and use [http://plug.ca/article.php?story=20050321233431578] which was passed at the 2005 NDP Annual General Meeting, making the Manitoba NDP the first political party in North America to officially endorse free software (or FLOSS).

He received 6,954 votes or 18.01% in the 2004 federal election, and increased his votes to 9,311 votes or 21.9% in the 2006 federal election. His campaign expenditures also increased from $9,928 in 2004, to $23,405 in 2006.

External links

*cite web | title=Canadian election candidate takes stand for FOSS | publisher=Newsforge | url=http://trends.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=06/01/18/1556238&tid=136 | accessdate=2006-11-10 | first=Bruce | last=Byfield
* [http://www.mathieuallard.ca/ Mathieu Allard's official web site] , found inactive 10 November 2006; Information from the previously site was integrated into this article.