Member of Parliament Mauril Bélanger is being remembered tonight in his constituency of Ottawa-Vanier as a listener and a doer.

He was a man who fought for what he believed in on large issues, and small. Go anywhere in the streets of Vanier and they will know their MP by his name. 

Mauril Bélanger was well-loved there and will be fondly remembered.

It's an every day cafe for an every day kind of guy. 

The owner of Bobby's Table on Montreal Road says Mauril Bélanger was just that.

“He was always a down to earth person,” says Bobby Leblanc, “never said no to anyone.”

The MP for Ottawa Vanier used to frequent the cafe for some food and some down time.

“He did a lot of work for the area,” says customer Stan Crosier, “he was a well-liked man, very approachable.”

“It’s very sad to see a good man go,” adds customer Gilles Carrière.

Bélanger was first elected to Parliament in 1995 and easily won the next six elections, too.  But it was his fight for Francophone rights and, in particular for the Montfort Hospital that sealed his deal in his riding.

“He was there for the community until the end,” says Ottawa Councillor Mathieu Fleury, who grew up in the community, “to him, politics wasn't work, it was who he was, he lived it day in day out. He had the community at heart.”

The former mayor of Vanier, Gisèle Lalondespearheaded the fight for the Montfort in the late 1990’s alongside Bélanger.  It was nicknamed SOS Montfort.

“At the end he was so surprised and so happy we had won,” says Lalonde.

The Montfort Hospital lowered all its flags today in honor of Mauril Bélanger.  The head of the hospital was both a colleague of Bélanger's and a personal friend.

“He was very attentive to the community,” says Dr. Bernard Leduc, the CEO of the Montfort, “to its needs and committed to try to influence and change what he could change.”

What Bélanger couldn’t change was the outcome of this terrible disease, ALS, that moved swiftly and decisively through his body much as he had done through his political career.

“I think we are losing an important person,” says Lalonde, “and it will be hard for us to replace him.”