Pierre Bourque
Bourque's 2010 NASCAR Canadian Tire Series car
Ottawa City Councillor forBy-Rideau Ward
In office March 4, 1991[1] – December 1, 1991
Preceded by	Marc Laviolette
Succeeded by	Richard Cannings
Personal details
Born	(1958-10-07)October 7, 1958 Ottawa
Died	August 28, 2021(2021-08-28) (aged 62)
Residence(s)	Ottawa,Ontario
Profession	Journalist, race car driver
NASCAR driver
NASCARCraftsman Truck Series career
2 races run over 2 years
Best finish	101st (2009)
First race	2009Power Stroke Diesel 200 (IRP)
Last race	2009Lucas Oil 200 (Iowa)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
NASCARCanada Series career
33 races run over 6 years
2011 position	28th
Best finish	15th (2010)
First race	2006 Griddly Headz 100 (Edmonton)
Last race	2011 Wild Wing 300 (Barrie)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 4 0
Statistics up to date as of June 17, 2012.

André Pierre Bourque Jr.^[2][3] (October 7, 1958 – August 28, 2021^[4]) was a race car driver, developer, journalist, broadcaster and former politician in Ottawa, Ontario,^[5] and operated the onlinenews aggregator siteBourque Newswatch (Newswatch).

Bourque was born at theOttawa General Hospital in 1958, the son of Pierre Bourque (Sr.) and Barbara McNeil.^[6] He was the grandson ofE. A. Bourque, Ottawa's first francophone mayor.^[7]

Following a ten-year career as a race car driver, and a brief apprenticeship with his father's land development business,^[3] Bourque was appointed toOttawa City Council and the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton in March 1991 to fill a vacancy afterMarc Laviolette became mayor. Bourque was appointed following a council vote, defeating 17 other candidates, including community activists Maurice Pagé andRichard Cannings. Bourque was supported by the "pro-developer" bloc on council, and was opposed by the council's left wing, who coalesced behind Pagé.^[1] Bourque's stay on council was short lived, however, and he was defeated by Cannings in themunicipal election that November.^[8] While on council, he opposed "all big projects", including bringing in aTriple-A baseball team and improvingLansdowne Park. He also opposed all tax increases, and called for the demolition of some heritage buildings in his ward such as theDaly Building. He had near-perfect attendance in both committee and council meetings.^[3]

Two years later, he ran forParliament in the1993 Canadian election as aLiberal candidate in theMontreal riding ofRosemont, and lost toBloc Québécois candidateBenoît Tremblay.^[8]

Bourque ran for Ottawa city council againin 1994, in the newBruyère-Strathcona Ward but was defeated^[8] byStéphane Émard-Chabot. At this point in his career, he was vice president of his father's company, Bourque, Pierre & Fils. He ran on a platform of safety, improving street lighting and basic services, and called for the removal of traffic barriers in theByward Market. He also wanted to "control taxes by cutting frivolous expenditures".^[9] Despite his campaign of fiscal restraint, Bourque was embroiled in a scandal during the campaign as he owed $1.1 million to creditors, after his father promised to repay some of his debts, but went to other debts instead.^[10]

In 2001, theRyerson Review of Journalism (RRJ) criticized Bourque and Newswatch. RRJ said Bourque had not written some of his books but only acted as a researcher. In addition, many of Newswatch's breaking stories had often been inaccurate. RRJ also reported that, despite Bourque's web traffic claims, a random sample indicated that Canadian Internet users had not visited the Newswatch site and that no major Canadian journalist used Newswatch as a source.^[8]

Newswatch has also been criticized for allowing advertisers to purchase headlines and to "torque" them to highlight a positive news story about itself or a negative story about an opponent.^[5]

Bourque was a fill-in host and contributor to radio talk shows on580 CFRA.^[4]

Bourque was race car driver in theNASCAR Busch East Series andNASCAR Canadian Tire Series,^[11] competing from 2007 to 2011.^[4]

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

(key)Bold – Pole Position. (Overall Finish/Class Finish).

Bourque was married to Kristine Haselsteiner and had two children.^[2]

Bourque died of aheart attack in 2021.^[4]

• Personal site
• Pierre Bourque driver statistics at Racing-Reference
• Bourque Newswatch

• 1958 births
• 2021 deaths
• Ottawa city councillors
• Candidates in the 1993 Canadian federal election
• Journalists from Ottawa
• Canadian sportsperson-politicians
• Racing drivers from Ontario
• Sportspeople from Ottawa
• NASCAR drivers
• ARCA Menards Series drivers
• Franco-Ontarian people
• Liberal Party of Canada candidates for the Canadian House of Commons
• Real estate and property developers
• Canadian talk radio hosts
• Canadian racing drivers
• Quebec candidates for Member of Parliament

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Wikipedia pending changes protected pages