Member of Parliament
Paradis was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in a 1995 by-election, called after Gaston Péloquin, the sitting Bloc Québécois member for Brome—Missisquoi, was killed in an automobile accident. Paradis championed the Canadian federalist cause in the campaign and said that his election would confirm Brome-Missisquoi's place within a united Canada. The election was initially considered too close to call, but Paradis won by a significant margin. His victory was seen as helping the federalist cause in the buildup to the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty.
Paradis entered parliament as a backbench supporter of Jean Chrétien's government. In late 1995, he helped launch a Summer Work/Student Exchange project that encouraged students to develop their second-language skills. He was elected chair of the Liberal Party's Quebec caucus in February 1997.
Paradis was returned to a second parliamentary mandate in the 1997 federal election, and in late 1997 he co-chaired a special committee that recommended Quebec's schools be divided on linguistic rather than denominational lines. He was named as parliamentary secretary to the minister for International Cooperation in January 1999, and in September of the same year he was promoted to parliamentary secretary to the minister of Foreign Affairs. He was again returned to parliament in the 2000 federal election.
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