Marc LalondePC OC KC (French pronunciation:[maʁklalɔ̃d]; July 26, 1929 – May 6, 2023) was a Canadian politician who served as acabinet minister, political staffer and lawyer. A lifelong member of theLiberal Party, he is best known for having served in various positions of government from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, including serving as theMinister of Finance.

Lalonde was born inL'Île-Perrot, Quebec, and obtained a Master of Laws degree from theUniversité de Montréal, a master's degree fromOxford University, and a Diplôme d'études supérieures en droit (D.E.S.D) from theUniversity of Ottawa.^[1][2]

In 1959, he worked in Ottawa as a special adviser toProgressive Conservative Justice MinisterDavie Fulton. He went toMontreal to practise law until 1967 when he returned to Ottawa to work as an adviser in thePrime Minister's Office underLiberal Prime MinisterLester B. Pearson. Lalonde remained whenPierre Trudeau becamePrime Minister of Canada in 1968, serving asPrincipal Secretary.^[3] In this role during the 1970 October crisis he negotiated with Quebec premierRobert Bourassa and Montreal mayorJean Drapeau to request the enactment of theWar Measures Act in order to show that the enactment had the support of the Quebec and Montreal governments.^[4]

At Trudeau's urging, he ran for a seat in theHouse of Commons of Canada in the1972 election. Elected as theLiberalMember of Parliament (MP) for theriding ofOutremont, Lalonde immediately joined the Cabinet asMinister of National Health and Welfare, a position he held until 1977. He was concurrentlyMinister of Amateur Sport until 1976 and was alsoMinister responsible for the Status of Women from 1974 to 1979.^[5]

A staunchfederalist, he was also one of Trudeau's chief advisers on the situation in Quebec, taking the position ofMinister of State on federal-provincial relations in the wake of theParti Québécois victory in the1976 Quebec provincial election.^[6] Lalonde led a clandestine body within the Canadian Federal Government, codenamed FAN TAN, that collected intelligence on theQuebec separatist movement and organized political action against the separatists.^[7]

Lalonde served asMinister of Justice from 1978 until the Liberal government's defeat in the1979 election. When the Liberals returned to power in the1980 election, Lalonde becameMinister of Energy, Mines and Resources and instituted theNational Energy Program which became intensely unpopular inAlberta.^[8] The Bank of Canada reported that economic problems had been accelerated and magnified. Inflation was most commonly between 9% and 10% annually,^[9][10]

Lalonde was appointedminister of finance in 1982. As finance minister, he tabled the1983 and1984 federal budgets; both budgets saw a substantial increase in thegovernment budget deficit, as the deficit increased from $29.049 billion in1982 to $37.167 billion in 1984.^[11]

When Trudeau resigned, Lalonde endorsedJohn Turner in the1984 Liberal leadership convention^[12] and continued as finance minister after Turner succeeded Trudeau as prime minister in 1984, but did not run in the1984 election which saw the Liberals suffer a landslide loss to theProgressive Conservatives.

In 1989, he was made an Officer of theOrder of Canada. In 2004, he was inducted into theCanadian Medical Hall of Fame.^[13]

In the 1990s, he served as anad hoc judge at theInternational Court of Justice, and has also represented Canada in various trade disputes. He was a practising lawyer with the firm ofStikeman Elliott LLP in Montreal until his retirement in 2006.^[14]

Lalonde returned to the political arena in 2005 when Prime MinisterPaul Martin named him co-president of the Liberal Party's electoral campaign in Quebec for the39th Canadian federal election.Brigitte Legault, the president of the Young Liberals of Canada (Quebec), served as the other co-president.^[3]

Lalonde appeared before theHouse of Commons of Canada's Ethics Committee in November 2008 along with clientKarlheinz Schreiber, who was being questioned in regard to theAirbus affair involving former PMBrian Mulroney.^[15]

Lalonde died on May 6, 2023, at age 93.^[16][17]

There is a Marc Lalondefonds atLibrary and Archives Canada.^[18]

• A new perspective on the health of Canadians, best known as the "Lalonde report"
• Canadian Football Act

• Marc Lalonde – Parliament of Canada biography
• Order of Canada Citation

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