Gilles Duceppe (; born July 22, 1947) is a Canadian politician, proponent of the
Québec sovereignty movement and former leader of the
Bloc Québécois. He was a
Member of Parliament in the
House of Commons of Canada for over 20 years and has been the leader of the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois for 15 years in three stints: 1996, 1997-2011 and in 2015. He is the son of a well-known
Quebec actor,
Jean Duceppe. He was Leader of the Official Opposition in the
Parliament of Canada from March 17, 1997, to June 1, 1997. He resigned as party leader after the
2011 election, in which he lost his own
seat to
New Democratic Party (NDP) candidate
Hélène Laverdière and his party suffered a heavy defeat; however, he returned four years later to lead the party into the
2015 election. After being defeated in his own riding by Laverdière again, he resigned once more.