Claude Charron (born October 22, 1946, inL'Île-Bizard, Quebec) is a formerCEGEPteacher,provincial politician,writer andbroadcaster. He became Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and the youngest Member of theNational Assembly of Quebec.

He graduated from the École de Saint-Raphaël in L'Île-Bizard andCollège Saint-Laurent. Charron received his master's inpolitical science from theUniversité de Montréal. He was the vice-president of theUnion générale des étudiants du Québec (UGEQ) (General Union of Quebec Students) in 1968 and 1969. During 1969 and 1970 he taught atCégep Édouard-Montpetit and theCégep du Vieux Montréal.

Before running provincially, Charron participated in the foundation of theMouvement Souveraineté-Association in 1967. He was also an anti-Vietnam War activist and expressed an interest insyndicalism.

In 1970, Claude Charron entered provincial politics. He was elected to theNational Assembly of Quebec as theParti Québécois candidate in the riding ofSaint-Jacques (now part ofSainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques) and was reelected in 1973, 1976, and 1981. At the time of his first election, Charron became the youngest MNA (Member of the National Assembly (Quebec)) in the province's history. Following the election of his party to power in 1976 he was appointed Minister responsible for High Commission on Youth, Recreation and Sports and in 1979 was named the Government House Leader and Minister responsible for Parliamentary Affairs.

In February 1982 Charron resigned hiscabinet position after pleading guilty to a charge ofshoplifting a tweed jacket from theEaton'sMontrealdepartment store.^[1] Charron was found by a security guard wearing the coat with the price tag still attached. He later described the act as a form of political suicide after the PQ's failures in the1980 referendum andconstitutional negotiations.

In November of that year he was charged withdrunk driving and resigned his seat in the Quebec National Assembly. The following year Charron published his memoir in theFrench language under the titleDésobéir. In this book he confirmed hishomosexuality.

Since leaving politics Charron has worked inradio andtelevision, notably with theTVA network andRadio-Canada, and has contributed to the news magazineL'actualité. He is currently the correspondent for TVA inParis but had worked alongsidePierre Bruneau during the special televised program for the2007 Quebec elections.

• "Biography".Dictionnaire des parlementaires du Québec de 1792 à nos jours (in French).National Assembly of Quebec.
• New York Times report on Claude Charron's resignation from Cabinet
• CBC electoral report on the Sainte-Marie-Saint Jacques riding
• Etremag "Claude Charron : de l’Assemblée à la télé," 10 July 2012 (In French) Retrieved: 24 March 2018Archived 31 July 2020 at theWayback Machine

• 1946 births
• Living people
• Academics from Quebec
• Parti Québécois MNAs
• Canadian LGBTQ people in provincial and territorial legislatures
• Canadian gay politicians
• Canadian gay writers
• People from L'Île-Bizard–Sainte-Geneviève
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• French-language Canadian non-fiction writers
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• 20th-century Canadian memoirists
• Canadian male non-fiction writers
• Canadian LGBTQ journalists
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• Academic staff of Cégep du Vieux Montréal
• 20th-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec
• Academic staff of Cégep Édouard-Montpetit

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