The Honourable
Robert de Cotret
PC
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Berthier-Montcalm
In office
November 28, 1988 – October 25, 1993
Preceded byElectoral District created
Succeeded byMichel Bellehumeur
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Berthier—Maskinongé—Lanaudière
In office
September 4, 1984 – November 28, 1988
Preceded byAntonio Yanakis
Succeeded byElectoral District eliminated
(see Berthier—Montcalm, Champlain and Saint-Maurice from 1987 to 2003)
Senator for Ottawa, Ontario
In office
June 5, 1979 – January 14, 1980
Resigned to run in 1980 General Election
Appointed byJoe Clark
Member of the Canadian Parliament
for Ottawa Centre
In office
October 16, 1978 – May 22, 1979
Preceded byHugh Poulin
Succeeded byJohn Leslie Evans
Secretary of State for Canada
In office
21 April 1991 – 3 January 1993
Preceded byGerry Weiner
Succeeded byMonique Landry
Minister of the Environment
In office
23 May 1990 – 20 April 1991
Preceded byLucien Bouchard
Succeeded byJean Charest
President of the Treasury Board
In office
17 September 1984 – 26 August 1987
Preceded byHerb Gray
Succeeded byDon Mazankowski
Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce
In office
4 June 1979 – 2 March 1980
Preceded byJack Horner
Succeeded byHerb Gray
Personal details
Born(1944-02-20)February 20, 1944
Ottawa, Ontario
DiedJuly 9, 1999(1999-07-09) (aged 55)
Political partyProgressive Conservative

Jean Robert René de Cotret, PC (February 20, 1944 – July 9, 1999) was a Canadian economist and politician.

De Cotret was the President and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada from 1976 to 1978 before being elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a 1978 by-election. He was elected as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Ottawa Centre, and was one of the few francophone MPs in the Tory caucus.

Despite the Tory victory in the 1979 general election, de Cotret lost his seat. In need of French-Canadian Cabinet ministers, Prime Minister Joe Clark appointed de Cotret to the Senate of Canada and to Cabinet as Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce in Clark's minority government.

When the government was defeated in a motion of non-confidence, a new election was called for February 18, 1980. De Cotret resigned his Senate seat in order to run for a seat in the House of Commons in the riding of Berthier—Maskinongé, but was defeated in the 1980 election along with the Clark government.

He ran again in the 1984 election, and was elected along with a Progressive Conservative majority government led by Brian Mulroney. Mulroney appointed de Cotret to Cabinet as President of the Treasury Board. In 1987, de Cotret became Minister of Regional Industrial Expansion, and reassumed the Treasury Board portfolio in 1989. In 1990, he became Minister of the Environment and then Secretary of State for Canada in 1991.

De Cotret retired from Cabinet in January 1993 and did not run in the 1993 election.

External links

Cabinet of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (1984–93)
Cabinet of Prime Minister Joe Clark (1979–1980)
Presidents of the Treasury Board
Ministers of the Environment
Secretaries of State for Canada
Ministers of International Trade
Authority control databases
Categories