Stéphane Paquette

Stéphane "Stef" Paquette (born 18 December 1973., in Chelmsford, Ontario) is a Franco-Ontarian singer-songwriter, actor, and politician.

Stéphane Paquette
Stéphane Paquette at French music festival La Nuit sur l'étang, in Sudbury
Background information
Also known as	Stef
Born	(1973-12-18) 18 December 1973 (age 51) Chelmsford, Ontario, Canada
Occupation(s)	Singer-songwriter, actor
Years active	1993–present
Website	www.stefpaquette.ca

Career

A founding member of the band Les Chaizes Muzikales in 1993, Paquette launched a solo career in 2002 with his first solo album, L'Homme exponentiel. His second solo album, Salut de l'arrière pays, was released in 2011 and won a number of awards, including the Prix Trille Or from the Association des professionels de la chanson et de la musique in 2013.^[1] In January 2014, he won five of the seven prizes at the annual Contact ontarois music competition, with his prize package including an extensive series of music festival bookings across Canada.^[2]

In 2009, he appeared on the debut album by Patricia Cano, as a duet vocalist on the track "Nada de nieve". In 2011, he participated as a supporting musician in a reunion tour by the rock band CANO.^[3]

In 2012, Paquette released a full length album, Le Salut de l'arrière-pays that he composes with Normand Renaud. In 2015, he followed up with a three-song EP.

After a three-year hiatus in which cinema, television and other projects took a lot of space, Paquette launched the single "Plus belle que toé" in September 2018. Paquette has started to move into the country/bluegrass genre, frequently in collaboration with the Sudbury band Murder Murder.

Paquette is also known as an improv comedian and actor, whose television roles have included Météo+, Les Bleus de Ramville^[4] and Hard Rock Medical. Paquette is one of the three lead actors in the feature film Perspective.

In addition, he was also an afternoon host on CHYC-FM in Sudbury, and performed at a rally in Sudbury on 5 April 2009, to protest staff cutbacks at CBCS-FM, the city's CBC Radio One station.^[5]

In 2019, Paquette announced his candidacy in the New Democratic Party's nomination contest for Nickel Belt in the 2019 Canadian federal election.^[6] He won the nomination and stood second with 32.1% of the vote, 3,390 votes behind the incumbent Liberal MP Marc Serré.^{[citation needed]}

Electoral record

v t e 2019 Canadian federal election: Nickel Belt
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%	Expenditures
	Liberal	Marc Serré	19,046	38.99	-3.81	$96,428.93
	New Democratic	Stéphane Paquette	15,656	32.05	-5.73	$18,983.01
	Conservative	Aino Laamanen	10,343	21.17	+4.43	$7,684.88
	Green	Casey Lalonde	2,644	5.41	+2.93	none listed
	People's	Mikko Paavola	1,159	2.37	–	none listed
Total valid votes/expense limit			48,848	99.39
Total rejected ballots			298	0.61	+0.22
Turnout			49,146	64.17	-2.94
Eligible voters			76,585
	Liberal hold		Swing		+0.96
Source: Elections Canada[7][8]