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Gilles Roch (born August 26, 1952 in Winnipeg, Manitoba [1] ) is a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1986 to 1990, representing the rural riding of Springfield. [2]
Manitoba is a province at the longitudinal centre of Canada. It is often considered one of the three prairie provinces and is Canada's fifth-most populous province with its estimated 1.3 million people. Manitoba covers 649,950 square kilometres (250,900 sq mi) with a widely varied landscape, stretching from the northern oceanic coastline to the southern border with the United States. The province is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territories of Nunavut to the north, and Northwest Territories to the northwest, and the U.S. states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south.
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking office in government. Politicians propose, support and create laws or policies that govern the land and, by extension, its people. Broadly speaking, a "politician" can be anyone who seeks to achieve political power in any bureaucratic institution.
Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres, making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Canada's southern border with the United States is the world's longest bi-national land border. Its capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. As a whole, Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land area being dominated by forest and tundra. Consequently, its population is highly urbanized, with over 80 percent of its inhabitants concentrated in large and medium-sized cities, many near the southern border. Canada's climate varies widely across its vast area, ranging from arctic weather in the north, to hot summers in the southern regions, with four distinct seasons.
The son of Marcel Roch, he worked as a hotel manager before entering political life. He was a board member of the Tourist Industry Association of Manitoba, and was also a member of the Franco-Manitoban School Trustees Association. Unlike most Franco-Manitoba politicians, Roch was an evangelical Christian rather than a Roman Catholic. [1]
Roch's political career followed an unusual course. He initially supported the Liberals, but defected to the Progressive Conservative Party in 1986 when the Liberals denied him permission to run as a candidate for the party. In the provincial election of 1986, Roch was elected in Springfield as a Progressive Conservative, defeating incumbent New Democrat Andy Anstett by 55 votes. He was re-elected by a much greater margin in the 1988 election, in which the Progressive Conservatives formed a minority government under Gary Filmon. [3]
The Manitoba Liberal Party is a political party in Manitoba, Canada. Its roots can be traced to the late nineteenth-century, following the province's creation in 1870.
The Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba is a right-of-centre political party in Manitoba, Canada and the only right-leaning party in the province. It is currently the governing party in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, after winning a substantial majority in the 2016 provincial election.
Roch, against his expectations, was not appointed to Filmon's cabinet following the election. On September 8, 1988, he crossed the floor to rejoin the Liberal Party, which was the official opposition in the legislature at the time. These changing allegiances won Roch few supporters, and he did not seek re-election in the 1990 election. [3]
