Bernard Landry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean-Bernard Landry

Bernard Landry portrait.

Rank: 28th Premier
Term of Office: March 8, 2001
June 6, 2003
Predecessor: Lucien Bouchard
Successor: Jean Charest
Date of Birth: March 9, 1937
Place of Birth: Saint-Jacques
Spouses: Lorraine Laporte (death)
Chantal Renaud
Profession: Lawyer
Political affiliation: Parti Québécois

Jean-Bernard Landry, born March 9, 1937 in Saint-Jacques, Quebec, (near Joliette, Quebec), is a Quebec lawyer, teacher, politician, past Premier of Quebec, Canada, (20012003), former leader of the Opposition (2003–2005) and former leader of the Parti Québécois (2001–2005). On June 26, 2004, he married script writer and former yé-yé singer Chantal Renaud. He speaks three languages fluently: French, Spanish and English.

Contents

[edit] Profile

Bernard Landry received a degree in law from the Université de Montréal in Montreal, and a degree in economics and finance from Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris in Paris.

A practising lawyer, he was a partner in the Montreal law firm of "Lapointe Rosenstein" when he was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 1976 general election. Under the Parti Québécois government of René Lévesque, he served as Minister of State of Economic Development from February 2, 1977 to March 12, 1981. Re-elected in the riding of Laval-des-rapides at the 1981 general election, he was again Minister of State of Economic Development until September 9, 1982 when he was made Delegate Minister to Exterior Commerce. He was later Minister of International Relations and Exterior Commerce, and Minister of Finance in the same government.

After the defeat of Parti Québécois in the 1985 general election, he taught in the Department of Administrative Sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal until 1994. After the victory of the PQ in the 1994 general election, the newly elected premier, Jacques Parizeau, made him his Deputy Minister, a position he held from September 26, 1994 to December 15, 1998.

He became Premier of Quebec on March 8, 2001, following the resignation of Lucien Bouchard. Landry is a Quebec independentist advocating a supranational confederation of Quebec and Canada, inspired by the institutions of the European Union. As such, he is one of the most faithful followers of René Lévesque and the other sovereigty-associationists. He is the author of Commerce sans frontières ("Trade without Borders"), published in 1987.

In 2003, he lost the Quebec general election to Jean Charest's Liberal Party of Quebec. A renowned documentary named À Hauteur d'homme about Bernard Landry's viewpoint of the election was produced in 2003. At the August 2004 Parti Québécois National Council, after a long period of reflection that began the day after the election, he announced on August 27, 2004, that he would remain president of the party, and lead the PQ to the next election in order to bring Quebec to independence.

On June 4, 2005, Bernard Landry announced he would resign as party leader after gaining only 76.2% approval in a leadership confidence vote at a party convention in Quebec City.[1]

Since September 2005, he has been a professor at UQAM in the business strategy department. He also has a finance TV show.

[edit] Elections as party leader

[edit] Further reading

  • Vastel, Michel. Landry, le grand dérangeant, Les éditions de l'Homme, 2001. ISBN 2-7619-1676-X

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Preceded by:
Yves Duhaime
Minister of Finance (Québec)
1985
Succeeded by:
Gérard D. Lévesque
Preceded by:
Monique Gagnon-Tremblay
Deputy Premier (Québec)
1994-2001
Succeeded by:
Pauline Marois
Preceded by:
Pauline Marois
Minister of Finance (Québec)
1996-2001
Succeeded by:
Pauline Marois
Preceded by:
Lucien Bouchard
Premier of Quebec
2001-2003
Succeeded by:
Jean Charest
Preceded by:
Lucien Bouchard
Leader of the Parti Québécois
2001-2005
Succeeded by:
Louise Harel
Preceded by:
Jean Charest
Leader of the Opposition in Quebec
2003-2005
Succeeded by:
Louise Harel
In other languages