Jean-Jacques Blais

Jean-Jacques Blais PC QC (born June 27, 1940 in Sturgeon Falls , Ontario ) is a Canadian lawyer and politician of the Liberal Party of Canada , who was a member of the Lower House for several years and was a minister several times.

Life

After attending school, Blais completed a degree from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA). A subsequent postgraduate studies of law he first ended with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) and then with a Master of Laws (LL.M.) and worked afterwards as an attorney.

In the general election of October 30, 1972 , he 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 Nipissing until his electoral defeat in the general election on September 4, 1984 .

At the beginning of his parliamentary activity, he was initially Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance, Trade and Economic Affairs between January 1973 and February 1974 and then until October 1976 Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources and Public Works. At the same time, he served as co-chair of the Joint Committee of the Parliament of Canada on Employer-Employee Relations in the Public Sector between September 1974 and October 1976 . In addition, he took over his first government office during this time, from October 1975 to September 1976 as Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Privy Council.

On September 14, 1976 Blais was appointed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau as Postmaster General for the first time in the 20th Canadian Cabinet , and then took over the post of Solicitor General from February 2, 1978 to March 3, 1979 .

After the Liberals won again in the general election on February 18, 1980 , Prime Minister Trudeau appointed him to the newly formed 22nd government of Canada on March 3, 1980 , initially as Minister for Utilities and Services. As part of a cabinet reshuffle, he became Secretary of Defense on August 12, 1983, and kept this ministerial office from June 30 to September 16, 1984 under the 23rd cabinet formed by Trudeau's successor, John Turner .

After leaving government and the House of Commons, Blais resumed his practice as a lawyer. In addition, he became chairman of the newly founded Pearson Peacekeeping Center in 1994 and held this position until 2002.

Web links

• Entry on Parliament's homepage