Bernard Landry - Professional Profile

Professional Profile

Landry received a degree in law from the Université de Montréal, and a degree in economics and finance from Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris.

He ran unsuccessfully in Joliette in the 1970 election and in Joliette-Montcalm in 1973. A practising lawyer, he was a partner in the Montreal law firm of "Lapointe Rosenstein" when he was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in the 1976 general election. Under the Parti Québécois (PQ) government of René Lévesque, he served as Minister of State of Economic Development from February 2, 1977 to March 12, 1981. Re-elected in the riding of Laval-des-rapides at the 1981 general election, he was again Minister of State of Economic Development until September 9, 1982 when he was made Delegate Minister to Exterior Commerce. He was later Minister of International Relations and Exterior Commerce, and Minister of Finance in the same government.

After the defeat of Parti Québécois in the 1985 general election, he taught in the Department of Administrative Sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal until 1994. After the victory of the PQ in the 1994 general election, the newly elected Prime Minister, Jacques Parizeau, made him his Deputy Premier, a position he held from September 26, 1994 to December 15, 1998.

Landry became Premier of Quebec on March 8, 2001, following the resignation of Lucien Bouchard. He is a Quebec sovereignist advocating a supranational confederation of Quebec and Canada, inspired by the institutions of the European Union. As such, he is one of the most faithful followers of René Lévesque and the other sovereigty-associationists. He is the author of Commerce sans frontières ("Trade without Borders"), published in 1987.

In 2003, Landry lost the Quebec general election to Jean Charest's Quebec Liberal Party. A renowned documentary named À Hauteur d'homme about his viewpoint of the election was produced in 2003. At the August 2004 Parti Québécois National Council, after a long period of reflection that began the day after the election, he announced on August 27, 2004, that he would remain president of the party, and lead the PQ to the next election in order to bring Quebec to independence. However, on June 4, 2005, Landry announced he would resign as party leader after gaining only 76.2% approval in a leadership confidence vote at a party convention in Quebec City.

Since September 2005, he has been a professor at UQAM in the business strategy department.

On February 9, 2008, Landry hosted the final round of the Finance Quiz at the 2008 Financial Open at UQAM.