The Honourable Don Boudria PC
Minister for International Cooperation
In office 1996–1997
Preceded by	Pierre Pettigrew
Succeeded by	Diane Marleau
Minister responsible for La Francophonie
In office October 3, 1996 – June 10, 1997
Prime Minister	Jean Chrétien
Preceded by	Pierre Pettigrew
Succeeded by	Diane Marleau
Minister of State and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
In office June 11, 1997 – January 14, 2002
Preceded by	Herb Gray
Succeeded by	Ralph Goodale
Minister of Public Works and Government Services
In office May 6, 2002 – May 26, 2002
Preceded by	Ralph Goodale
Succeeded by	Jacques Saada
In office January 15, 2002 – May 5, 2002
Preceded by	Alfonso Gagliano
Succeeded by	Ralph Goodale
Member of Parliament forGlengarry–Prescott–Russell
In office September 4, 1984 – January 22, 2006
Preceded by	Denis Éthier
Succeeded by	Pierre Lemieux
Ontario MPP
In office 1981–1984
Preceded by	Joseph Albert Bélanger
Succeeded by	Jean Poirier
Constituency	Prescott and Russell
Personal details
Born	(1949-08-30)August 30, 1949 (age 75) Hull,Quebec, Canada
Political party	Liberal
Residence(s)	Sarsfield,Ontario, Canada

Don BoudriaPC (born August 30, 1949) is a formerCanadian politician and current senior associate at Sandstone Group, an Ottawa-based executive advisory firm. He served in theHouse of Commons of Canada from 1984 to 2006 as a member of theLiberal Party of Canada, and was acabinet minister in the government ofJean Chrétien.

Boudria was born inHull, Quebec, and raised inSarsfield, Ontario. Similarly, he was educated in the area and worked as a public servant before entering political life. AFranco-Ontarian, he was elected as councillor forCumberland Township in 1976, and remained a council member until his election to theLegislative Assembly of Ontario in the1981 provincial election. Boudria defeatedProgressive Conservative incumbentJoseph Albert Bélanger by 5,172 votes inPrescott and Russell, and served in the legislature for three years as a member theOntario Liberal Party, which was then the official opposition to the Progressive Conservative government, led byWilliam Davis.

He left provincial politics to run for the House of Commons in the1984 federal election. Boudria won a convincing victory in Ontario's easternmost riding,Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, even as his party suffered a landslide defeat againstBrian Mulroney'sProgressive Conservatives. Joining theopposition benches of the Commons in 1984, he became a member of theLiberal Rat Pack withBrian Tobin,Sheila Copps andJohn Nunziata. This group of young Liberals made it their business to challenge the Tories at every possible chance. In his first federal term, Boudria successfully sponsored a motion to erect a statue of Canada's onlyNobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister, the Right HonourableLester B. Pearson.

Boudria was re-elected without difficulty in1988,1993,1997 and2000. Like the other Rat Pack members, he rose rapidly in the Liberal ranks. From 1991 to 1993, he served as Deputy LiberalHouse Leader. After the Liberals won a huge majority in 1993, Boudria returned temporarily to the back benches. He was appointedChief Government Whip on September 15, 1994. He held this position until October 4, 1996, when he was named to Cabinet asMinister for International Cooperation andMinister responsible for La Francophonie.

Boudria was namedMinister of State and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons after the1997 election, managing a complex legislative agenda when, for the first time in Canadian history, five parties (Liberals,Reform,Bloc Québécois,New Democrats and Progressive Conservatives, in descending order of seat count) won enough seats to qualify forofficial party status. In 1998, he sponsored legislation to control third-party advertising during election campaigns strictly. This law was challenged all the way to theSupreme Court and sustained, remaining in place to this day. One of the main challengers of this legislation was theNational Citizens Coalition.

He retained this position until January 14, 2002, when he was again given a full portfolio asMinister of Public Works and Government Services. He was reappointed as Minister of State and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons on May 26, 2002, whenPrime MinisterJean Chrétien retired.^[1]

Boudria was known within the Liberal caucus as a leading Chrétien loyalist. DuringQuestion Period, he frequently handed Chrétien notes from a white binder. Due to this practice, Reform Party deputy leaderDeb Grey asked in 2000 if Chrétien could answer a question "without any help from Binder Boy."^[2] The nickname stuck.

Boudria was not reappointed to cabinet in December 2003 whenPaul Martin replaced Chrétien as Liberal leader and prime minister. However, he became chair of the Official Languages Committee, and after the2004 federal election, became chair of the Procedure and House Affairs Committee. Subsequently, he was elected chair of the Standing Committee on Official Languages (3rd session of the37th parliament) and the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (1st session of the38th parliament).

On May 6, 2005, Boudria announced he would not run in thenext election.

Boudria's memoir,Busboy: From Kitchen to Cabinet, was published in late 2005. In 2006, he assistedStéphane Dion's campaign for the leadership of the Liberal Party. Boudria joined Ottawa-based public relations agencyHill & Knowlton Canada as a senior associate in May 2006, and was promoted to senior counsellor in March 2007. He continued with Hill & Knowlton Canada up until June 2023, before beginning a new professional journey as senior associate at Sandstone Group.

Don's son, Dan Boudria, was elected to theConseil des écoles catholiques de langue française du Centre-Est in the2006 municipal election. In early 2007, the Liberal Party of Canada Association ofGlengarry—Prescott—Russell selected the younger Boudria as candidate in the40th federal election. He lost to incumbentConservative MPPierre Lemieux.

Boudria has been decorated on three separate occasions by theInternational Assembly of French-speaking Parliamentarians with the l’Ordre de la Pleiade award, where he served as the founding president of the Ontario section, for his advocacy of international cooperation and the rights of French-speaking peoples. He was also a recipient of theCanadian Association of Former Parliamentarians'Distinguished Service Award in 2018.

TheUniversity of Ottawa has created an annual scholarship under his name to nurture Canadian history scholars.

The city of Ottawa has also established aDon Boudria Park in Orleans to recognize his many years of service to the region and to Canadians at large. It was opened in July 2020 and officially inaugurated byJim Watson, theMayor of Ottawa, in August 2021.

Note: Conservative vote is compared to the total of the Canadian Alliance vote and Progressive Conservative vote in 2000 election.

Note: Canadian Alliance vote is compared to the Reform vote in 1997 election.

• List of University of Waterloo people

• Don Boudria: Personal Website
• How'd They Vote?: Don Boudria's voting history and quotes
• Don Boudria – Parliament of Canada biography
• Ontario Legislative Assembly parliamentary history

• 1949 births
• Living people
• People from the United Counties of Prescott and Russell
• Members of the 26th Canadian Ministry
• Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Ontario
• Liberal Party of Canada MPs
• Franco-Ontarian people
• Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada
• Politicians from Gatineau
• University of Waterloo alumni
• Ontario Liberal Party MPPs
• 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada
• 21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada
• 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use Canadian English from September 2021
• All Wikipedia articles written in Canadian English
• Use dmy dates from September 2021