Bernard Landry
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, (
2001–
2003), 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.
Bernard Landry received a degree in economics and finance 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.
* He lost the
2003 election.
*Vastel, Michel.
Landry, le grand dérangeant, Les éditions de l'Homme, 2001. ISBN 276191676X
*
Parti Québécois leadership election, 1985*
Politics of Quebec*
List of Quebec Premiers*
List of Quebec leaders of the Opposition*
Quebec general elections*
Timeline of Quebec history*
Ted Moses (Former Grand Chief of the Cree)
*
Assemblée nationale
