He held a number of positions and responsibilities in the fields of sports and leisure, including serving as Montreal's project officer for the World Youth Games in Denmark in 1967.
"[8] Parent was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in a 1984 by-election in the Montreal division of Sauvé, winning a landslide victory in what had previously been a Parti Québécois (PQ) seat.
In April 1990, Parent was appointed to a thirteen-member Liberal Party committee led by Jean Allaire to explore options for Quebec, including sovereignty, if the accord failed.
[14] In 1992, he helped ensure the Quebec Liberal Party's support of the Charlottetown Accord,[15] another ultimately unsuccessful attempt at constitutional reform.
[16] In February 1992, Parent accompanied Quebec's education minister Michel Pagé on a trip to Israel to study how the country integrated new immigrants and encouraged the use of the Hebrew language.
[19] During the 1997 Canadian federal election, Parent served as a campaign co-chair for Liberal Party of Canada candidate Denis Coderre in the Bourassa riding.
[21] Relations between municipal parties were extremely fraught after the 2001 election, and in late May 2002 Parent walked out of the chair's position in frustration at council's inability to move forward with its agenda.
[24] Parent was directly re-elected as Montréal-Nord's borough mayor in the 2005 municipal election and, by virtue of holding this position, automatically continued to serve on city council.