Lawyer and former federal minister Marc Lalonde has died at the age of 93.
A family friend confirmed the news on Sunday.
Chief of staff to Pierre Elliott Trudeau from 1968 to 1972, Marc Lalonde was elected for the first time in the riding of Outremont. He remained in office until 1984.
Throughout his career in the government of Trudeau Sr., he was entrusted with various portfolios, namely those of Health and Social Welfare, Federal-Provincial Relations, Justice, Energy, Mines and Resources and Finance.
He remained very involved in various activities following his retirement from politics, notably as a partner at the firm Stikeman Elliott where he specialized in the field of international commercial arbitration.
Marc Lalonde was admitted as a Member of the Order of Canada on October 23, 1989.
Joined on Sunday evening, former minister and Liberal senator Francis Fox testified to the impact that Marc Lalonde had on the party as Pierre-Elliott Trudeau’s chief of staff. “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 explains.
Then Marc Lalonde was involved in all the battles 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, we knew that these were the departments that would have Trudeau’s priorities in the next two or three years,” says Francis Fox.
“One of the best deputies from Outremont, one of the best Ministers of Justice and lawyers in international law. […] Thank you dear Marc Lalonde for all that you have done for our community and our country, ”testified for her part the current MP for Outremont, Rachel Bendayan, on Twitter.
More details to come.
