Gérard Pelletier

Gérard Pelletier PC CC (born June 21, 1919 in Victoriaville , Québec ; † June 22, 1997 ) was a Canadian journalist , radio presenter , author , diplomat and politician of the Liberal Party of Canada , who, among other things, was a member of the lower house , minister and ambassador in France and was at the United Nations .

Life

After attending school, Pelletier completed a degree from which he obtained a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He then worked as a radio presenter and journalist for the French- language daily Le Devoir , which appears in Montreal , before becoming editor-in-chief of La Presse in 1961 , the largest French-language daily in North America , which also appears in Montreal .

In the general election of November 8, 1965 , Pelletier was elected as a candidate of the Liberal Party for the first time as a member of the lower house and represented the constituency of Hochelaga until he resigned on August 29, 1975 . At the beginning of his parliamentary career, from January 18, 1966 to May 8, 1967, he was first chairman of the Standing Committee on Radio, Television, Films and the Support of the Arts, and then in April 1967 he took over his first government office as Parliamentary Secretary to the Foreign Minister until April 1968.

Subsequently, Pelletier was appointed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau as a minister without portfolio on April 20, 1968 for the first time in the 20th government of Canada , in which he was State Secretary for Canada from July 6, 1968 to November 26, 1972 after a cabinet reshuffle. At the same time he acted from May 11 to August 11, 1971 as the acting communications minister. Most recently he was communications minister from November 27, 1972 until his resignation on August 28, 1975.

After resigning as minister and leaving the House of Commons, he succeeded Léo Cadieux as ambassador to France on August 29, 1975 and held this post until he was replaced by Michel Dupuy , whom he in turn became ambassador to the United Nations in May 1981 in New York City followed. In August 1984, he finally resigned from the diplomatic service and was replaced by Stephen Lewis as ambassador to the UN.

For his services as a journalist, politician and diplomat, Pelletier was named Companion des Order of Canada on December 18, 1978 .

Publications

• JEC d'aujourd'hui: une étude sur le mouvement , Montréal, Centrale de la JEC, 1945
• Quartier Nord , co-editor Alec Pelletier, Montréal, Fides, 1945
• Histoire des enfants tristes: un reportage sur l'enfance sans soutien dans la province de Québec , Montréal, L'Action nationale, 1950
• Le concept d'élasticité chez Marshall et quelques auteurs , Thèse (Maîrise), Université Laval, 1962
• Confederation at the crossroads , Saskatoon, University of Saskatchewan, 1965
• La crise d'octobre , Montréal, Editons du Jour, 1971
• Les années d'impatience: 1950–1960 , Montréal, Stanké Verlag, 1983
• Souvenirs , Montréal, Stanké, 3 volumes, 1983–1992
• Le temps des choix, 1960–1968 , Montréal, Stanké, 1986
• Cité libre: une anthologie , co-editor Yvan Lamonde, Montréal, Stanké, 1991
• Aventure du pouvoir, 1968–1975 , Montréal, Stanké Verlag, 1992
• Le diplomate et l'Africain , Associate Editor Heather Hill, Montréal, Stanké, 1995
• À contre-courant: textes choisis, 1939–1996 , Montréal, Éditions A. Stanké, 1996

Web links

• Entry on Parliament's homepage
• Order of Canada
• Obituary for Pelletier, by Anthony Wilson-Smith, from Maclean's , 7, 1997, again in The Canadian Encyclopedia , 2003, especially on his relationship with Pierre Trudeau