For Quebec Liberal (PLQ) MNA Frantz Benjamin, being the first Black person to hold a prominent political position is an honour, but it’s also just a starting point.
The Liberal member for Viau was the first Black president of Montreal’s city council and the third vice-president in the National Assembly.
“Often, it happens in my career as a person engaged publicly that they remind me that I’m the first in some position, but my big challenge was always to be not the last,” he told CTV News. “Being the first is something. It’s OK, but it is more important for me that I shall not be the last, that once the door is open, the door should be open for others that come after me.”
Benjamin’s first foray into public life was as a Montreal school commissioner more than two decades ago.
At the time, he said there were only two or three other Black people in the posts.
When he began serving on Montreal’s city council in 2009, he pushed for more diverse representation and said he is glad to see that Montreal and other municipalities have councils that better represent their communities.
That progress, however, is not always certain to remain, he warned.
“In politics, representation, when you have progress, it can be really fragile,” he said. “It is important that those progresses should be kept and doing more.”
He said that despite the gains made, much remains to be done in Quebec and Canada.
He is one of just a handful of Black MNAs in the National Assembly, for example.
“We’ve [made] some efforts, but we are far away from progress talking about representation of Black persons at the different levels of public life, city council, National Assembly, House of Commons,” he said “We have a long way to go, a long way to go.”
Benjamin continues, “We should leave the door open for inclusion, for diversity because I believe, surely, that the National Assembly is a mirror of the society. The city council is a mirror of society. It should reflect the population.”
He said that Quebec recognizing Black History Month in 2006 was a good start but more work needs to accompany the gestures and proclamations.
“I’m not talking only as representing people as an MNA, but as a member of the Black community, I saw on a daily basis how our social action or inaction have effects on the lives of members of the Black communities, on justice, on economic and education,” he said. “It is important for me also to continue to ask for, besides that month officially recognized, that we need concrete action to have an impact in those lives.”
In 2025, Benjamin said that it is more important than ever to acknowledge the contributions of Black people in Canada and Quebec.
“We are facing our special context, especially this year and these days, seeing what happened in the U.S. and for me, more than ever, it is important to continue to celebrate Black History Month because we shall not erase those contributions,” said Benjamin. “We have to engage the conversation more than ever with all the society. It is not only a month for the Black community, it is a month for all society.”
