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] In this role during the 1970 October crisis he negotiated with Quebec premier Robert Bourassa and Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau to request the enactment of the War Measures Act in order to show that the enactment had the support of the Quebec and Montreal governments.^[4]

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.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7]

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.^[8] The Bank of Canada reported that economic problems had been accelerated and magnified. Inflation was most commonly between 9% and 10% annually,^[9][10]

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.^[11]

When Trudeau resigned, Lalonde endorsed John Turner in the 1984 Liberal leadership convention^[12] 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.^[13]

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.^[14]

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.^[15]

Lalonde died on May 6, 2023, at age 93.^[16][17]

Archives

There is a Marc Lalonde fonds at Library and Archives Canada.^[18]