Jean Marchand

Career Highlights

After completing a social-science degree in labour relations at Laval (1942), Jean Marchand became an organizer for the Fédération de la pulpe et du papier, and for the Confédération des travailleurs catholiques du Canada (CTCC) in 1944. Secretary general of the CTCC from 1947, he was elected president 1961.

During the 1950s, with other unionists, intellectuals and reform members of the Quebec Liberal Party, he helped bring about the defeat of the Union Nationale government (1960). His union central, renamed the Confederation of National Trade Unions in 1960, worked closely with the Liberal government of Jean Lesage and won some legislative reforms, such as the right of government employees to form unions and to strike.

Critical of the rise of separatism in Quebec in the early 1960s, Marchand was persuaded by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson to be a member of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism and to join the federal Liberal Party in 1965. His presence was designed to enhance the francophone presence in Cabinet and to defend the cause of federalism in Quebec. He agreed on condition that two longtime friends, Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Gérard Pelletier, be allowed to join him. He held several important Cabinet posts, resigning in 1976 to run in the Quebec provincial election to try to prevent the Parti Québécois from coming to power. He failed in both objectives.

Marchand was appointed to the Senate in December 1976. Selected Speaker in March 1980, he played a central role in the 1981 debate over reform of the Constitution. After his resignation from the Senate, Marchand was president of the Canadian Transport Commission from 1983 to 1985, when he became a director of Ports Canada and vice-chairman of the Société du port de Québec. In 1986 he was made an Companion of the Order of Canada.