Nathalie Provost | |
|---|---|
 Provost in 2025 | |
| Secretary of State (Nature) | |
| Assumed office May 13, 2025 | |
| Prime Minister | Mark Carney |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Member of Parliament forChâteauguay—Les Jardins-de-Napierville | |
| Assumed office April 28, 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Brenda Shanahan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1965 or 1966 (age 58–59) Quebec, Canada |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Known for | Gun control activism |
Nathalie ProvostPC MP is a Canadian politician, gun control advocate, and engineer who has served as amember of Parliament (MP) forChâteauguay—Les Jardins-de-Napierville since 2025, she is a member of theLiberal Party.
Provost survived being shot during the 1989École Polytechnique massacre. She and other survivors founded thePolySeSouvient gun-control advocacy group, for which she served as a spokesperson. She has continued as an activist for gun control and to reduce violence against women. From 2017 to 2019 Provost served as vice-chair of the Government'sCanadian Firearms Registry, but resigned because of belief they were not strong enough. She works as an engineering civil servant for the government of Quebec. With Provost's permission, Canadian authorLouise Penny featured her as a character in her 2022 novelA World of Curiosities.
She was elected to theHouse of Commons in the2025 Canadian federal election.
Provost was born in 1965 or 1966 inQuebec.[1][2] She was a 23-year old[1] mechanical engineering student atÉcole Polytechnique de Montréal in 1989. On 6 December of that year,Marc Lépine, armed with a rifle, interrupted a lecture, shot the ceiling, and ordered the approximately 50 male students to leave the room. Nine female students, including Provost, remained.[3][4] Lépine told the women he was there tofight feminism; Provost responded that they were students, not activists. Lépine shot the women, killing six and injuring three, including Provost.[4][5] She received four gun shots to her head and leg,[1] and cautioned her fellow injured students to play dead.[6] The gunman continued to other floors, killing a total of 14 women, including one staff person, and wounding 10 others, plus four men.[7]: 30 [5] This was the deadliest mass murder in modern Canadian history until the2020 Nova Scotia attacks. At the end, Lépine shot himself, committing suicide.[8] Provost returned to her studies one month later. She completed her bachelor's degree in 1990, and earned her master's degree at the same university.[9]
Provost worked as an engineer in the civil service[9] for the Government of Quebec.[1] In 2022, Provost received an honorary doctorate degree from École Polytechnique. The university credited her for her “remarkable achievements, driven by uncommon determination and social values, [and] for the example of audacity that she embodies for the new generation of engineers in Quebec, in Canada and around the world.”[9] She has four children.[9] She has had to deal withpost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the attacks.[8] In 2022, writerLouise Penny sought and obtained Provost's permission to include her as a character in her novelA World of Curiosities.[10]
Since April 28th 2025, she has been elected as the Member of Parliament forChâteauguay—Les Jardins-de-Napierville. On May 13th, she was appointed byMark Carney as Secretary of State (Nature).
After the shooting, Provost embraced the feminist label, describing it as a "beautiful title."[11][12] With other survivors of the attack, she formed the gun-control advocacy groupPolySeSouvient, and became one of the two spokespersons.[13] In 2009, she advocated to retain theCanadian Firearms Registry, opposing plans that were eventually implemented by theGovernment of Stephen Harper in 2012.[1] In 2017, Provost was appointed as vice-chair of the Canadian Government'sCanadian Firearms Registry; she resigned in 2019, citing dissatisfaction with what she described as the government's timid approach to gun control.[14] In 2021, she urged federal politicians to reject firearms regulations proposed by theLiberal government, which she considered to be too weak.[15] In 2022, Provost denounced theCanadian Coalition for Firearm Rights for using the discount code "POLY" for its online sales.[13][16] Her complaints prompted a barrage of online abuse, including sexual and violent threats.[6]
On March 21, 2025, Provost announced that she would run as theLiberal Party of Canada candidate inChâteauguay—Les Jardins-de-Napierville in the2025 Canadian federal election.[17] She was elected, winning 45% of the vote, by more than 10 000 votes.[18]
| 2025 Canadian federal election:Châteauguay—Les Jardins-de-Napierville | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Liberal | Nathalie Provost | 28,224 | 45.16 | +8.65 | ||||
| Bloc Québécois | Patrick O'Hara | 18,160 | 29.06 | -7.54 | ||||
| Conservative | David De Repentigny | 13,538 | 21.66 | +9.50 | ||||
| New Democratic | Hannah Wolker | 1,377 | 2.20 | -5.61 | ||||
| Green | Martine Desrochers | 773 | 1.24 | -0.25 | ||||
| People's | Nicolas Guérin | 429 | 0.69 | -3.09 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 62,501 | 98.46 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 975 | 1.54 | -0.59 | |||||
| Turnout | 63,476 | 69.36 | +6.77 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 91,519 | |||||||
| Liberalnotional gain fromBloc Québécois | Swing | +8.09 | ||||||
| Source:Elections Canada[19][20] | ||||||||
| Note: number of eligible voters does not include voting day registrations. | ||||||||
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