The Honourable
Marc Lalonde
PC OC KC
Minister of Finance
In office
September 10, 1982 – September 16, 1984
Prime Minister
Preceded byAllan MacEachen
Succeeded byMichael Wilson
Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources
In office
March 3, 1980 – September 9, 1982
Prime MinisterPierre Trudeau
Preceded byRay Hnatyshyn
Succeeded byJean Chrétien
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
In office
November 24, 1978 – June 3, 1979
Prime MinisterPierre Trudeau
Preceded byOtto Lang
Succeeded byJacques Flynn
Minister of State (Federal-Provincial Relations)
In office
September 16, 1977 – November 23, 1978
Prime MinisterPierre Trudeau
Preceded byNew office
Succeeded byJohn Mercer Reid
Minister of National Health and Welfare
In office
November 27, 1972 – September 15, 1977
Prime MinisterPierre Trudeau
Preceded byJohn Munro
Succeeded byMonique Bégin
Member of Parliament
for Outremont
In office
October 30, 1972 – September 3, 1984
Preceded byAurélien Noël
Succeeded byLucie Pépin
Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister
In office
1968–1972
Prime MinisterPierre Trudeau
Preceded byJohn Hodgson
Succeeded byMartin O'Connell
Personal details
Born(1929-07-26)July 26, 1929
L'Île-Perrot, Quebec, Canada
DiedMay 6, 2023(2023-05-06) (aged 93)
Montreal
Political partyLiberal
Alma mater
ProfessionLawyer

Marc Lalonde PC OC KC (French pronunciation: [maʁk lalɔ̃d]; July 26, 1929 – May 6, 2023) was a Canadian politician who served as a cabinet minister, political staffer and lawyer. A lifelong member of the Liberal Party, he is best known for having served in various positions of government from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, including serving as the Minister of Finance.

Early life

Lalonde was born in L'Île-Perrot, Quebec, and obtained a Master of Laws degree from the Université de Montréal, a master's degree from Oxford University, and a Diplôme d'études supérieures en droit (D.E.S.D) from the University of Ottawa.[1][2]

In 1959, he worked in Ottawa as a special adviser to Progressive Conservative Justice Minister Davie Fulton. He went to Montreal to practise law until 1967 when he returned to Ottawa to work as an adviser in the Prime Minister's Office under Liberal Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. Lalonde remained when Pierre Trudeau became Prime Minister of Canada in 1968, serving as Principal Secretary.[3]

Political career

At Trudeau's urging, he ran for a seat in the House of Commons of Canada in the 1972 election. Elected as the Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Outremont, Lalonde immediately joined the Cabinet as Minister of National Health and Welfare, a position he held until 1977. He was concurrently Minister of Amateur Sport until 1976 and was also Minister responsible for the Status of Women from 1974 to 1979.[4]

A staunch federalist, he was also one of Trudeau's chief advisers on the situation in Quebec, taking the position of Minister of State on federal-provincial relations in the wake of the Parti Québécois victory in the 1976 Quebec provincial election.[5] Lalonde led a clandestine body within the Canadian Federal Government, codenamed FAN TAN, that collected intelligence on the Quebec separatist movement and organized political action against the separatists.[6]

Lalonde served as Minister of Justice from 1978 until the Liberal government's defeat in the 1979 election. When the Liberals returned to power in the 1980 election, Lalonde became Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources and instituted the National Energy Program which became intensely unpopular in Alberta.[7] The Bank of Canada reported that economic problems had been accelerated and magnified. Inflation was most commonly between 9% and 10% annually,[8][9]

Lalonde was appointed minister of finance in 1982. As finance minister, he tabled the 1983 and 1984 federal budgets; both budgets saw a substantial increase in the government budget deficit, as the deficit increased from $29.049 billion in 1982 to $37.167 billion in 1984.[10]

When Trudeau resigned, Lalonde endorsed John Turner in the 1984 Liberal leadership convention[11] and continued as finance minister after Turner succeeded Trudeau as prime minister in 1984, but did not run in the 1984 election which saw the Liberals suffer a landslide loss to the Progressive Conservatives.

After politics

In 1989, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2004, he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame.[12]

In the 1990s, he served as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice, and has also represented Canada in various trade disputes. He was a practising lawyer with the firm of Stikeman Elliott LLP in Montreal until his retirement in 2006.[13]

Lalonde returned to the political arena in 2005 when Prime Minister Paul Martin named him co-president of the Liberal Party's electoral campaign in Quebec for the 39th Canadian federal election. Brigitte Legault, the president of the Young Liberals of Canada (Quebec), served as the other co-president.[3]

Lalonde appeared before the House of Commons of Canada's Ethics Committee in November 2008 along with client Karlheinz Schreiber, who was being questioned in regard to the Airbus affair involving former PM Brian Mulroney.[14]

Lalonde died on May 6, 2023, at age 93.[15][16]

Archives

There is a Marc Lalonde fonds at Library and Archives Canada.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Honourable Marc Lalonde". CMHF. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  2. ↑ Tulchinsky, T. H. (2018). "Marc Lalonde, the Health Field Concept and Health Promotion - PMC". Case Studies in Public Health: 523–541. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-804571-8.00028-7. ISBN 9780128045718. PMC 7150308.
  3. 1 2 "Pierre Trudeau's right hand man Marc Lalonde has died at 93". montrealgazette. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  4. ↑ ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Politique- (May 7, 2023). "L'ancien ministre libéral fédéral Marc Lalonde est décédé". Radio-Canada.ca. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  5. ↑ "Marc Lalonde | The Canadian Encyclopedia". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  6. ↑ Molinaro, Dennis G.; Davies, Philip H.J. (2023). "The FAN TAN file: Quebec separatism and security service resistance to politicization 1971–72". Intelligence and National Security: 1–18. doi:10.1080/02684527.2023.2246235. ISSN 0268-4527. S2CID 261310699.
  7. ↑ MacEachen, Allan J. (October 28, 1980), Budget 1980 (PDF), Ottawa, ON, retrieved January 27, 2015{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ↑ "Inflation calculation", Bank of Canada, archived from the original on May 10, 2007, retrieved November 8, 2010
  9. ↑ Gerson, Jen (September 14, 2012), "A legacy rich as oil: Ex-Alberta premier Peter Lougheed's ideas imprinted on party still in power 41 years later", National Post, retrieved February 3, 2015
  10. ↑ "Finance Minister Marc Lalonde says the federal deficit may... - UPI Archives". UPI. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  11. ↑ Jeffrey, Brooke. (2010). Divided loyalties : the Liberal Party of Canada, 1984–2008. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-4426-6018-2. OCLC 762397337.
  12. ↑ Office, Prime Minister's. "Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada on the passing of the Honourable Marc Lalonde". www.newswire.ca. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Marc Lalonde". Centre for International Governance Innovation. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Mulroney-Schreiber inquiry steers clear of 'Airbus affair' on first day". CBC News. March 30, 2009. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Lalonde, L'honorable Marc, CP, OC, CR". La Presse. May 10, 2023. Retrieved May 20, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Pierre Trudeau's right hand man Marc Lalonde has died at 93". montrealgazette. Retrieved May 8, 2023.
  17. ↑ "Marc Lalonde fonds, Library and Archives Canada". July 20, 2017.
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