Gilles Taillon (born August 11, 1945) is the former leader of the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ). A politician, teacher and businessman in Quebec, Canada; he was the ADQ Member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA) for the district of Chauveau in the Quebec City area from the 2007 to the 2008 elections.

He was not sitting as an MNA when he was selected as the party's new leader in the Action démocratique du Québec leadership election on October 18, 2009. However, he announced his resignation from that position less than a month later following a caucus revolt.^[1]

Taillon was born in Saint-Jérôme, Quebec. He studied at the Université de Montréal from 1967 to 1974 and received a bachelor's degree in arts and literature and a diploma in industrial relations.

Taillon was a teacher in secondary school for 5 years before being an adviser in working relations. He was a director for the Ministry of Education. He was also the operations vice-president for the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité au travail. Taillon also worked as a lecturer at the Université de Sherbrooke.

Taillon was the president of the Conseil du patronat du Québec from 1998 to 2006.^[2] The Conseil du Patronat is the main association for businesspeople across the province. Taillon was also heavily involved in the education sector, serving as general manager for the Sherbrooke school board, the human resources director for the defunct Gamelin school board in Gatineau and vice-president of the Federation des commissions scolaires du Quebec.

In 2005 Taillon, who had previously been a Liberal supporter, joined the ADQ and served as president of the party from 2006 to 2007.

Following the resignation of ADQ leader Mario Dumont after the 2008 general election, Taillon announced his candidacy for the leadership. His campaign manager was MNA François Bonnardel.^[9]

Taillon was elected leader by two votes cast, over rival Éric Caire.^[10] The election result was very controversial, as it was later reported that a television personality, in an on-air stunt, voted in the election under the name of recently deceased Gabonese strongman Omar Bongo. Later reports also revealed that the party president, who was supposed to be neutral in the race, helped raise money and organize for Taillon. Following the narrow victory, Taillon named a new shadow cabinet that did not include a critic's role for his leadership rival, Caire. Caire later resigned from the party to sit as an independent MNA, joined by caucus colleague and supporter Marc Picard.^[11]

On November 10, 2009, just 23 days after his election as party leader, Taillon announced a new leadership race, citing the party infighting and alleging irregularities in the party's financial affairs, dating back to 2003, which he had called in the Sûreté du Québec to investigate.^[1]