 He taught at the Gisèle Lalonde High School in Orleans, near Ottawa, where he, amongst other things, supervised and acted as speaker for the student debate club.In the 2000 federal election, Nadeau finished second in Gatineau behind Mark Assad of the Liberal Party of Canada by 13,197 votes.In the 2004 federal election, he finished second behind Françoise Boivin of the Liberals by 830 votes—a surprisingly close result, given that this had long been reckoned as one of the more federalist regions of Quebec.