Marc Arthur Lapierre, born
Joseph Clément Marc Arthur Lapierre, is a Canadian-born Patagonian politician who has served as the 23rd Prime Minister of Patagonia since 2019 and has been leader of the Conservative Party since 2016. Lapierre is the first openly gay Patagonian prime minister; he is also the first to be born in neither Patagonia nor the British Isles.
Lapierre was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. His father, Antonio, was a Quebec provincial politician of French-Canadian descent who briefly served as Premier of Quebec from 1996 to 1997. His mother, Madeleine, a granddaughter of former Canadian prime minister Sir Chester A. Arthur, is of French-Canadian, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, English, and Welsh descent. Lapierre attended McGill University in Montreal from 1985 to 1989, and then moved to Patagonia to attend Joseph Chamberlain University in Victoria from 1990 to 1994. During his time at Chamberlain, he made the decision to permanently move to Patagonia. He became a lawyer, and was officially naturalized as a Patagonian citizen in 1997. He was elected to the Patagonian Parliament in 2002 as a Conservative to the riding of New Aberystwyth, replacing the retiring incumbent Bill Howells. After 12 years as a backbencher, he was appointed Shadow Minister of Justice in 2014 by Conservative leader Gavin Short. Short resigned as Conservative leader a little over a year later, and Lapierre won the leadership election to replace him. In the 2019 federal election, Lapierre was elected as prime minister, defeating incumbent Theresa Boshnyak of the Labour Party in a landslide.