Pierre Curzi born February 11, 1946 in Montreal, Quebec is an actor, screenwriter and politician in Quebec. He is a former Member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA) for the riding of Borduas in the Montérégie region south of Montreal. Elected under the Parti Québécois (PQ) banner, he later sat as an independent.
Acting and screenplay career
Curzi went to the École nationale de Théâtre in 1969. Prior to his political career, he played in numerous popular Quebec movies, plays, television shows and documentaries including We Are Far from the Sun (On est loin du soleil), Duplessis, Maria Chapdelaine, The Crime of Ovide Plouffe (Le Crime d’Ovide Plouffe), Babylone, Les Filles de Caleb, Million Dollar Babies, Virginie, Suzanne, Caffè Italia, Montréal, Matroni and Me (Matroni et moi), The Barbarian Invasions, Chili’s Blues (C’était le 12 du 12, et Chili avait les blues), Le Négociateur, The New Life of Paul Sneijder (La nouvelle vie de Paul Sneijder) and Romeo and Juliet.
Overall, he played roles in about 50 productions since 1971 and had been nominated for four Genie Awards for his roles in Maria Chapdelaine (1983), Lucien Brouillard (1983) and The Decline of the American Empire (Le Déclin de l’empire américain) (1986) and a nomination for best screenplay for Intimate Power (Pouvoir intime) in 1986.
He was also the president of the Union des artistes for eight years. The UDA is the main union group for cinema, theatre and television actors in Quebec.
He is married to Marie Tifo, an actress with whom he costarred in the films Lucien Brouillard, Le jour S… and Intimate Power.
Politics
Curzi entered politics when he announced his candidacy for the riding of Borduas in the 2007 provincial elections, following the retirement of Jean-Pierre Charbonneau. He defeated the Action démocratique du Québec’s Claude Gauthier by over 2,000 votes. He was later named the PQ critic for culture, communications and language.
Curzi was forced to apologize and retract a statement he made in October 2007 during a radio interview that appeared to suggest that a sovereign Quebec would have “more teeth” and could potentially remove the voting rights of Quebec’s English-speaking community living on Montreal’s West Island. He faced some criticism in 2008 as one of two MNAs, along with Daniel Turp, who endorsed a controversial petition opposing Paul McCartney’s performance at Quebec City’s 400th anniversary celebrations. In September 2010, Curzi expressed on the television interview show Les Francs-tireurs his theory that there was a shortage of Francophone players on the National Hockey League team the Montreal Canadiens and that this was “damned well political” and the result of a federalist plot.
On June 6, 2011, Curzi and caucus mates Louise Beaudoin and Lisette Lapointe resigned from the Parti Québécois to sit as independents over the PQ’s acceptance of a bill changing the law to permit an agreement between the City of Québec and Quebecor Inc. concerning the construction of an arena in Quebec City.
Electoral record
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2008 Quebec general election: Borduas |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Parti Québécois | Pierre Curzi | 13,329 | 47.66 | +8.90 | ||||
| Liberal | Jacques Charbonneau | 9,125 | 32.63 | +10.95 | ||||
| Action démocratique | Jean Dion | 3,430 | 12.26 | −19.05 | ||||
| Québec solidaire | Éric Noël | 966 | 3.45 | +0.53 | ||||
| Green | Marco Caron | 904 | 3.23 | −1.28 | ||||
| Parti indépendantiste | Michel Lepage | 214 | 0.77 | – | ||||
| Total valid votes | 27,968 | 98.30 | ||||||
| Rejected and declined votes | 485 | 1.70 | ||||||
| Turnout | 28,453 | 65.87 | −13.71 | |||||
| Electors on the lists | 43,198 | |||||||
| Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec. | ||||||||
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2007 Quebec general election: Borduas |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Parti Québécois | Pierre Curzi | 12,529 | 38.76 | −8.06 | ||||
| Action démocratique | Claude Gauthier | 10,123 | 31.31 | +13.44 | ||||
| Liberal | Jacques Charbonneau | 7,010 | 21.68 | −12.08 | ||||
| Green | Olivier Adam | 1,459 | 4.51 | – | ||||
| Québec solidaire | Julie Raby | 944 | 2.92 | – | ||||
| Independent | Super Cauchon | 262 | 0.81 | – | ||||
| Total valid votes | 32,327 | 99.12 | – | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 286 | 0.88 | – | |||||
| Turnout | 32,613 | 79.58 | +1.74 | |||||
| Electors on the lists | 40,980 | – | – | |||||
| Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec. | ||||||||