The body of former Liberal MP Serge Marcil has been found amidst the rubble in Port-au-Prince, his wife confirmed Saturday.
Christiane Pelchat said her husband's body was found in the crumbled ruins of the Hotel Montana.
"Serge was a gift life gave me," she said in a statement released Saturday.
"He was a humanist, a loving husband, caring, with a natural tenderness."
Marcil, a federal Liberal MP from 2000 to 2004, had been riding in an elevator at the hotel moments before the 7.0-magnitude quake struck.
A colleague with whom Marcil had been riding in the elevator was rescued on Jan. 13, the day after the quake.
Late last week, United Nations rescuers believed they had found Marcil alive but injured. Quebec Premier Jean Charest reported that Marcil had been transported to Miami for medical treatment.
Pelchat had travelled to Florida to be reunited with her husband and only learned of the mistake once she got to the hospital.
Another false report said Marcil had been taken to the Dominican Republic.
Charest praised Marcil Saturday at a mass in Montreal commemorating the victims of the disaster in Haiti.
"He was committed to development work and had a love for Haiti," Charest said. "He was a parliamentarian who embodied an openness to the outside world. It was with great sadness I learned of has death."
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff also offered tribute to Marcil.
"Everyone who knew Serge remembers him as a kind and determined man, who was appreciated by his colleagues, no matter where he worked," Ignatieff said in a statement. "He had a distinguished political career at many levels."
Marcil ran for re-election in 2004, but lost to the Bloc Quebecois' Alain Boire.
Earlier Saturday, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon had confirmed that 17 Canadians were killed in the Jan. 12 earthquake, and warned that total is likely to rise in the days and weeks ahead.
