Bernard Landry
Bernard Landry, born March 9, 1937 in Saint-Jacques, Quebec, (near Joliette), is a Quebec politician, past Premier of Quebec (2001-2003), and current leader of the Opposition (2003- ) and president of the Parti Québécois. On June 26, 2004, he married script writer and past yé-yé signer Chantal Renaud.
Profile
Bernard Landry received a degree in economics and finance from the Université de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec and a degree in economics and finance from the Institut d'études politiques in Paris, France.
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 1976. Under the Parti Québécois government of René Lévesque, he became 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 general election of April 13 1981, 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.
From 1986 to 1994, he was teaching at the department of administrative sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal. After the election of the PQ in 1994, Jacques Parizeau made him his Deputy Minister, a function he kept 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 sovereignists-associationists. He is the author of Commerce sans frontières (barrierless trade), published in 1987.
In 2003 he lost the Quebec general election to Jean Charest's Liberal Party of Quebec. A renown documentary about Bernard Landry's viewpoint of the election was produced in 2003, named À Hauteur d'homme. At the August 2004 Parti Québécois National Council, after a long reflexion that began the day after the election, he finally announced on August 27, 2004 that he would remain president of the party, lead the PQ to the next election and hopefully bring Quebec to its independence. He declared to an ovation of delegates: I want to govern provincially no more. I want national independence. [...] I took time for this decision because I know all the perils of this mission. I want to ask you to struggle also in order that our country can be born in a close future.
Elections as party leader
He lost the 2003 election.
See also
