Hill Life & People
And baby makes history: Bloc couple first pair of sitting MPs to become parents
By Samantha Wright Allen Nov. 8, 2017
Marilène Gill and Xavier Barsalou-Duval say Parliament should better accommodate young families, and they hope to help instigate that change.
Bloc Québécois MPs Xavier Barsalou-Duval and Marilène Gill with their two-month-old son Ulysse. The two represent a parliamentary first as the first couple of sitting MPs to have a baby together while elected. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade
New parents have enough work in a baby’s first weeks without having to represent two ridings, attend parliamentary votes, change diapers, and breastfeed between committee meetings and Commons sittings, but that’s the new world Bloc Québécois MPs Xavier Barsalou-Duval and Marilène Gill are navigating together. The couple earned a footnote in Canadian history with the birth of their son Ulysse, making them the first pair of sitting MPs to have a baby. “We have to triple everything,” said
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