Bernard Landry

Bernard Landry GOQ
Landry in 2006
28th Premier of Quebec
In office March 8, 2001 – April 29, 2003
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Lieutenant Governor	Lise Thibault
Deputy	Pauline Marois
Preceded by	Lucien Bouchard
Succeeded by	Jean Charest
Deputy Premier of Quebec
In office September 26, 1994 – March 8, 2001
Premier	Jacques Parizeau Lucien Bouchard
Preceded by	Monique Gagnon-Tremblay
Succeeded by	Pauline Marois
Leader of the Opposition of Quebec
In office June 6, 2003 – June 6, 2005
Preceded by	Jean Charest
Succeeded by	Louise Harel
President of the Parti Québécois
In office March 2, 2001 – June 6, 2005
Preceded by	Lucien Bouchard
Succeeded by	Louise Harel (interim)
Quebec Executive Council Pierre-Marc Johnson Preceded by Yves Duhaime Succeeded by Gérard D. Levesque
Parliamentary constituencies Member of the National Assembly of Quebec In office September 12, 1994 – June 4, 2005 Preceded by Luce Dupuis Succeeded by Stéphane Bergeron Constituency Verchères In office April 13, 1981 – December 2, 1985 Preceded by Riding established Succeeded by Guy Bélanger Constituency Laval-des-Rapides In office November 15, 1976 – April 13, 1981 Preceded by Gilles Houde Succeeded by Michel Leduc Constituency Fabre
Personal details
Born	(1937-03-09)March 9, 1937 Saint-Jacques, Quebec, Canada
Died	November 6, 2018(2018-11-06) (aged 81) Verchères, Quebec, Canada
Political party	Parti Québécois
Spouses	Lorraine Laporte ​ (died 1999)​ Chantal Renaud ​ (m. 2004)​
Paris Institute of Political Studies
Profession	Lawyer economist professor

Bernard Landry GOQ (French: [bɛʁnaʁ lɑ̃dʁi]; March 9, 1937 – November 6, 2018) was a Canadian politician who served as the 28th premier of Quebec from 2001 to 2003. A member of the Parti Québécois (PQ), he led the party from 2001 to 2005, also serving as the leader of the Opposition from 2003 to 2005.

Personal life

Landry was born on March 9, 1937, in Saint-Jacques, Quebec, (near Joliette), the son of Thérèse Granger and Bernard Landry.^[1] Landry was first married to Lorraine Laporte first a lawyer and later a court judge on Quebec justice system with whom he had three children. After his wife's death to cancer in 1999, in 2004, he married script writer and former yé-yé singer and actress Chantal Renaud. ^[2] Landry was classically trained by the clergy and retained some Latin.^[3] A native speaker of French, he also spoke fluent English and Spanish.

Landry received a degree in law from the

On February 9, 2008, Landry hosted the final round of the Finance Quiz at the 2008 Financial Open at

Landry died on November 6, 2018, from complications of

Landry ran unsuccessfully in Joliette in the 1970 election and in Joliette-Montcalm in 1973. He was a practising lawyer and 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 in Fabre. 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.

During the

As finance minister, Landry reduced program expenditures to balance the budget. The PQ and sovereignty lost public support and has not been restored to previous levels since.[3]

It was reported in the Montreal Gazette, and picked up by the New York Times that Landry spoke disparagingly of immigrants on the night of the 1995 referendum. In an unconfirmed article by The Gazette, an English-language paper in Montreal, it was reported that two employees at the Inter-Continental hotel in the city planned to file a complaint against Mr. Landry with the Quebec Human Rights Commission. Anita Martinez, a night clerk at the hotel, said that Mr. Landry told her, "It was because of you immigrants that the 'no' won," and added, "Why is it that we open the doors to this country so you can vote 'no' " to Quebec sovereignty?.^[8] Landry himself firmly denied having ever been either impolite to the two women, nor having ever made the comments regarding immigrants.

Landry became

In 2001, Landry was critical about Quebec receiving an extra $1.5 billion in equalization payments calling it degrading Quebec status and accused Ottawa for short-changing the province for decades by stating "Receiving equalization payments for more than 40 years in a row is clear evidence that the central government failed in redistributing real wealth,".^[10]

During the Parti Québécois leadership race of 2001, Landry criticized the federal government's policy of prominently displaying the maple leaf on federal government buildings and programs by saying, "Le Québec ne ferait pas le trottoir pour un bout de chiffon rouge" (Quebec does not prostitute itself for a piece of red cloth). Landry's aggressive remarks were widely criticized for insulting the Canadian flag, particularly among English-language media which rendered chiffon as "rag".^[11] Landry subsequently apologized but insisted that his words had been mistranslated. Landry's opponents used the controversy to undermine his national political cachet.^[12]

In 2003, Landry lost the

After retirement Landry stayed active in politics as a critic and to encourage young people to be involved in politics.[3]

Works

• Quebec's Foreign Trade, 1982
• Preface of
  Price Waterhouse
  's Les 58 moyens d'exporter, 1985
• Commerce sans frontières : le sens du libre-échange, 1987
• Preface of Zeina El Tibi's La Francophonie et le dialogue des cultures, 2001
• La cause du Québec, 2002
• Le commerce international : une approche nord-américaine, 2008 (in collab. with Antoine Panet-Raymond and Denis Robichaud)

Articles

• "La mondialisation rend la souveraineté plus nécessaire et urgente que jamais", in L'Action nationale, March 1999 (en, fr)
• "Pour l'indépendance politique et pétrolière", in Le Devoir, June 13, 2008 (en, fr Archived 2009-05-27 at the Wayback Machine)

Honours

• 1999 - Bavarian Order of Merit [1]
• Legion d'honneur
• 2006 -
  Patriot of the Year and Bene merenti de patria
  medal
• 2008 - Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec

See also

• 1985 Parti Québécois leadership election
• Politics of Quebec
• List of Quebec leaders of the Opposition
• Quebec general elections
• Timeline of Quebec history
• Ted Moses (Former Grand Chief of the Cree)

Notes