Jean-Luc Pépin (; November 15, 1924 – September 5, 1995) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

academic, politician and Cabinet minister.

Political biography

Pepin was a political science

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at the

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when he was first elected to the

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in the 1963 election as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) from

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. From 1965 to 1972, he served in the cabinets of

Prime Ministers A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but rat ...

Lester B. Pearson Lester Bowles Pearson (23 April 1897 – 27 December 1972) was a Canadian politician, diplomat, statesman, and scholar who served as the 14th prime minister of Canada from 1963 to 1968. He also served as Leader of the Liberal Party of C ...

and

Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau (October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000) was a Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Between his no ...

in various capacities, including Minister of Mines and Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce overseeing the decision to have Canada adopt the

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. He lost his

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in the 1972 election, and retired from public life until 1975 when Trudeau appointed him to chair the Anti-Inflation Board. In 1977, he and former

Premier of Ontario The premier of Ontario () is the head of government of Ontario. Under the Westminster system, the premier governs with the confidence of a majority the elected Legislative Assembly; as such, the premier typically sits as a member of Provincia ...

John Robarts John Parmenter Robarts (January 11, 1917 – October 18, 1982) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 17th premier of Ontario from 1961 to 1971. He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Early life Roba ...

were appointed to head the "Task Force on Canadian Unity". This task force was created by the federal government as a response to the election of the ''

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (PQ; , ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishi ...

'', which seeks political independence for Quebec in the 1976 provincial election. The task force issued a report in 1979 that recommended entrenching language rights in the

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, and for the reduction of federal powers in all areas but economic management. The Task Force also recommended the replacement of the

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with a "Council of the Federation" whose members would be appointed by provincial governments, and to grant the provinces a say in appointments to the

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. Most of these recommendations were rejected by the Government of Canada, and did not make their way into the new Constitution that was enacted in 1982. After a seven-year absence, Pepin returned to the House of Commons in the 1979 election. When the Liberals returned to power after the 1980 election, he became Minister of Transport until 12 August 1983. In that position he was responsible for * the drastic 1981 passenger rail service cuts (from which Canadian passenger rail never recovered); * abolition of the

Crowsnest Pass Crowsnest Pass (sometimes referred to as Crow's Nest Pass, ) is a low mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Canadian Rockies on the Alberta–British Columbia border. Geography The pass is located in southeast British Columbia an ...

rates; * the National Ports Policy, enunciated in the '' Harbour Commissions Act''. Later, he became a

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to the Department of External Affairs and Minister responsible for La Francophonie.

Later life

Following heart surgery, he retired from politics in 1984, and returned to academia as a fellow at the

's Institute on Public Policy. In 1977, he was made a Companion of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

. He was bestowed the title The

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in 1992.

Electoral history

, - Note: Social Credit vote is compared to Ralliement créditiste vote in the 1968 election.

Bibliography

* Pepin, Jean-Luc, 1924–. National ports policy = Politique portuaire nationale / Jean-Luc Pepin. – ttawa: Minister of Transport = Ministre des transports, 1981.

References

External links

Order of Canada Citation
*
Jean-Luc Pepin
at

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