Influential figure of “French Power” in Ottawa at the end of the 1960s and considered one of the tenors of the Liberal government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau during the following decade, former minister Marc Lalonde died Sunday at the age of 93. years.
The expressions of affection and admiration from those who knew him during his long career in Ottawa poured in within hours of the confirmation of his death.
“He was one of the best ministers I’ve known,” exclaimed immediately on the phone the former Clerk of the Privy Council Paul Tellier, who also worked under the orders of Marc Lalonde during his career of almost 15 years as deputy minister within the federal apparatus.
Born in 1929 in L’Île-Perrot and trained as a lawyer, Marc Lalonde headed several important departments within the Trudeau Sr. government – Federal-Provincial Relations, Health and Social Welfare, Justice, Finance as well as Energy, Mines and Resources. He was also at the forefront of a turbulent period on the Canadian unity front in the 1970s, notably following the election of the Parti Québécois in 1976, which was followed by the referendum on sovereignty in 1980 and the patriation of the Constitution in 1982.
His influence within the Liberal Party of Canada was undeniable. His intellectual strength was greatly respected. He marked many elected officials in the federal capital, having been Pierre Trudeau’s political lieutenant in Quebec when the Liberals held 74 of the 75 seats there.
“He had a vision for Canada. He believed that we, French-speaking Quebecers, had kept our language because we were part of Canada and that it was the best option to be part of a larger whole, which stretched from coast to coast. testified former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, who knew Marc Lalonde when he was special adviser to former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson in 1967.
PHOTO SPENCER COLBY, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien at the National Liberal Party Convention on Friday
He was a very hardworking and capable man. He was respected by everyone. He had a lot of knowledge and he spoke very clearly. He was a man who was very influential in the government. He is one of the public servants that is sometimes forgotten. But they are necessary for a government to function very well.
Jean Chretien, former Prime Minister of Canada
“It was nice talking to him because he knew what he was talking about. He was not a fart of brew, as they say, ”added Mr. Chrétien, who was a colleague of Marc Lalonde in the cabinet for 12 years in the Trudeau government.
Before running for office in 1972 in the riding of Outremont, Marc Lalonde earned a reputation as a fine mandarin in the federal capital. After being recruited as special adviser to Lester B. Pearson in 1967, the latter’s successor, Pierre Trudeau, asked him to act as principal secretary during his first term, from 1968 to 1972.
According to former cabinet minister and Liberal senator Francis Fox, Marc Lalonde had an immediate impact on the party during those four years. “He had renewed the quality and strength of the Quebec Liberal caucus because he saw that there would be a fight with the separatists,” he explained.
It was not the first time he had acted behind the scenes of power. For a little over a year, in 1959 and 1960, he had interrupted his legal and academic career in Montreal to become special adviser to Davie Fulton, who was then Minister of Justice in the Progressive Conservative government of John Diefenbaker.
But his years in the cabinet of Prime Ministers Pearson and Trudeau convinced him to jump into the political arena by running for office in Outremont.
Marc Lalonde was then involved in all the fights of the government of Trudeau Sr., being at the head of departments considered strategic at the time.
“We knew that if Lalonde went to Health or Energy, these were the departments that would have Trudeau’s priorities in the next two or three years,” argued Francis Fox.
Former Senator Dennis Dawson, who was Liberal MP for Louis-Hébert, in the Quebec City region, from 1977 to 1984, knew Marc Lalonde well. He was president of the Quebec Liberal caucus, which then had 74 members, while Marc Lalonde was a political lieutenant.
“We had many dialogues, him and me! Marc Lalonde is by far the best lieutenant that Quebec premiers have had to defend Quebec. He represented the interests of Quebec to the chief,” he testified.
“Intellectually and ideologically, he was very close to Pierre Trudeau. Together, they had experienced the great progress of the 1960s for Francophones. They worked on the Official Languages Act. The notion of having boxes of Corn Flakes in both languages may seem trivial in 2023, but when it was debated in the 1960s, it was a big fight. Mr. Lalonde was already in this battle,” said Mr. Dawson.
“He was part of ‟French Power” and ‟Quebec Power” in Ottawa, with André Ouellet, Monique Bégin, Francis Fox and Warren Allmand. Half of the ministers came from Quebec. And they weren’t junior ministers. »
Paul Tellier, who had a long career as a deputy minister in the public service and Clerk of the Privy Council, praised Mr. Lalonde’s contribution.
“Of all the ministers I have met during my 15-year career as Deputy Minister, Mr. Lalonde was one of the best ministers I have known in the Canadian government. He was exceptionally thorough. He was one of the few individuals I saw on duty who reacted the same way at 8:00 a.m. or 8:00 p.m. And that is very rare. When I was working on the Canadian unity file with him, the stress level was not higher for him or for me,” he said, while noting his “exceptional integrity.”
“There are two ministers that I put in this category: Marc Lalonde and the other, Don Mazankowski”, who was part of the Mulroney government.
Mr. Tellier had remained in contact with Mr. Lalonde. They saw each other once or twice a year.
Former PQ minister Claude Morin, who crossed swords on several occasions with Marc Lalonde during the years of strong constitutional tensions between Quebec and Ottawa, described Marc Lalonde as “an intelligent adversary”.
“I knew him as an opponent of Quebec in the constitutional negotiations we had with the federal government. He was an excellent spokesperson for Trudeau Sr. He was a smart man. But he was not, in my opinion, favorable to the Quebec nation. He had another conception of Canada. He was not an enemy. He was an adversary. »
Marc Lalonde left politics in 1984, having chosen not to seek a new mandate. In 1989, he was admitted as a Member of the Order of Canada.
Marc Lalonde in a few dates
- Born in L’Île-Perrot, Montreal, July 26, 1929
- 1955: Marc Lalonde is admitted to the Quebec Bar, then teaches common law and economics at the University of Montreal, from 1957 to 1959.
- 1967: He becomes special adviser to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, then Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau from 1968 to 1972.
- 1972: Marc Lalonde is elected to Parliament in the Montreal riding of Outremont, then is appointed Minister of National Health and Welfare, a post he will hold until 1977.
- 1974: He co-signs A New Perspective on the Health of Canadiansa document considered a masterpiece of health care policy and one that challenges traditional views in the field.
- 1980: He is appointed Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources and, during this mandate, will have a new energy policy adopted in the country.
- 1984: Then Minister of Finance, Marc Lalonde leaves politics after the resignation of Pierre Trudeau, and returns to the private sector, where he will act as a partner in the Stikeman Elliott firm.
- 1988: He receives the Medal for outstanding contribution to health policies from the World Health Organization.
- 1989: Marc Lalonde is admitted as a member of the Order of Canada.
With the collaboration of Vincent Larin