Former radio host, MP André Arthur dies at 78

Arthur announced his death in prewritten tweets published Sunday night.

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Former radio host André Arthur died on Sunday, according to messages he wrote himself in advance that were published to his Twitter account. He was 78.

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The cause of death was not announced. On Wednesday, he had announced that he had a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that had never been diagnosed. He died at the Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec.

The controversial host, who described himself as a polemicist, had been on the air in Quebec since the beginning of the 1980s. Arthur was also a member of Parliament for the riding of Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, near Quebec City, from 2006 to 2011, first as a Conservative MP then as an independent.

After his 2011 electoral defeat, he returned to the radio in Quebec City, but not without controversy. He was let go by CHOI Radio X in 2016, and then by Blvd 102.1 after making homophobic comments in 2018.

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“I had the privilege of having a career as a bus driver, a referee, an elected representative in the House of Commons as an independent without allegiance to a party, a space in the media that I hope did not leave anyone indifferent, and that I succeeded in making you laugh,” Arthur wrote in his posthumous tweet.

Arthur leaves his son René, three grandchildren, his daughter Pascale, his “tender Lucy” and his brother Louis.