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Members of the Elections Canada Advisory Board

Lise Bissonnette

An author, journalist, publisher, analyst and administrator, Lise Bissonnette has devoted herself since 2009 to personal works of writing and academic research, after a career in executive management at the head of major Quebec institutions.

As editor-in-chief of Le Devoir from 1990 to 1998, she successfully relaunched the editorial content and finances of the daily newspaper where she began her career as a journalist and renowned analyst in 1974. The Canadian Journalism Foundation recognized her accomplishments by awarding her the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Ms. Bissonnette later founded the Grande Bibliothèque du Québec, a new Crown corporation that she was subsequently responsible for merging with the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec and the Archives nationales du Québec, creating the largest cultural institution in the province. A member of the Académie des lettres du Québec, which also awarded her a career medal, she is the author of numerous books and essays.

Ms. Bissonnette holds nine honorary doctorates and is notably an officer of the Ordre national du Québec and the French Légion d'honneur. Since February 2013, she chairs the Board of Directors of the Université du Québec à Montréal. She co-chaired the task force on an umbrella act for Quebec universities, having received her mandate from the Quebec government after the 2013 Higher Education Summit.