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Michael Fortier | |
|---|---|
 Michael Fortier in 2010 | |
| Minister of International Trade | |
| In office June 25, 2008 – October 29, 2008 | |
| Preceded by | David Emerson |
| Succeeded by | Stockwell Day |
| Minister of Public Works and Government Services | |
| In office February 6, 2006 – June 25, 2008 | |
| Preceded by | Scott Brison |
| Succeeded by | Christian Paradis |
| Senator fromQuebec (Rougemont) | |
| In office February 27, 2006 – September 8, 2008 | |
| Appointed by | Stephen Harper |
| Preceded by | Shirley Maheu |
| Succeeded by | Suzanne Fortin-Duplessis |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1962-01-10)January 10, 1962 (age 63) |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse | Michelle Setlakwe |
| Profession | Financier,lawyer |
Michael M. Fortier (born January 10, 1962) is a Canadian investment banker, lawyer and former politician who wasMinister of Public Works and Government Services from 2006 to 2008 andMinister of International Trade in 2008. A member of theConservative Party, Fortier was appointed to theSenate of Canada in 2006 on the advice ofPrime MinisterStephen Harper, before resigning as a senator to run as amember of Parliament (MP) in the2008 federal election. He contestedVaudreuil—Soulanges, placing second.
Before entering the Cabinet, Fortier was a partner atOgilvy Renault, a leading Montreal law firm. One of his colleagues wasBrian Mulroney. He specialized insecurities,mergers and acquisitions. From 1992 to 1996, he managed Ogilvy Renault’s office inLondon, England.
In 1999, he became the Managing Director and Senior Advisor (Eastern Canada) atCrédit Suisse First Boston. In 2004, Fortier became Corporate Financing Director (Quebec) for TD Securities. Two days after his appointment to CabinetMontreal Gazette columnist Ian McDonald claimed that Fortier "was easily making $1 million a year running the Montreal office of TD Securities."
Fortier is Vice Chairman ofRBC Capital Markets.
Fortier ran in the1998 Progressive Conservative leadership election but came in last with 4% of the vote. Fortier was a Progressive Conservative candidate in the Montreal-area riding ofLaval West during the2000 federal election placing fourth. In 2003, he was co-chair of Harper's campaign to lead the new Conservative Party.
Fortier and veteran MPJohn Reynolds were the co-chairs of the Conservative campaign in the 2006 election.
Fortier was appointed to Cabinet asMinister of Public Works on 6 February 2006, the dayStephen Harper'sminority government took office. In a cabinet reshuffle in June 2008, he shifted to the International Trade portfolio.
A financier and lawyer fromMontreal, he had not been elected as a member of theHouse of Commons at the time he was appointed, nor was he a member of the Senate. Harper announced that Fortier would be appointed to the Senate, but would be expected to step down and run for a seat in the House of Commons at thenext election.[1]
On February 27, 2006, Fortier was formally summoned to the Senate. This practice is unusual in modern Canada, but there is precedent for such a practice: in 1979, former Prime MinisterJoe Clark appointed Quebec SenatorJacques Flynn asMinister of Justice because of his lack of representation in that province.
In 1972, when Trudeau failed to win a single seat west of Manitoba, he appointed senators to cabinet as well. 19th century Prime MinistersJohn Abbott andMackenzie Bowell served their entire terms in government as Senators.
Harper intended for Fortier to represent Montreal in Cabinet. No Montreal-areariding has elected a Conservative or any member of the party's predecessors—theProgressive Conservatives, theCanadian Alliance and theReform Party—since1988. Since then, right-of-centre candidates have rarely even competed in Montreal except in landslides.
As a former member of the Canadian Cabinet, he is a member of theQueen's Privy Council for Canada and thus has the right to the styleThe Honourable and the post-nominal designation PC for life. He is the brother of formerQuebec Liberal Party MNAMargaret Delisle.
Fortier's appointment to Cabinet drew considerable controversy. The main charge was that Fortier's appointment was a significant departure from past Conservative policy. The Conservatives, and before them Reform and the Alliance, had strongly opposed Senate appointments and unelected Cabinet ministers while inopposition. Opponents of Fortier's appointment also note that in doing so, Harper broke a promise made onRadio-Canada television during the election campaign.
As a Senator, Fortier did not attendQuestion Period to respond to questions from the opposition parties in the House. HisParliamentary Secretaries,James Moore at Public Works andGerald Keddy at International Trade, answered questions on his behalf. Fortier was subject to questioning in the Senate, but theBloc Québécois andNew Democratic Party were not represented in that body (One senator,Lillian Dyck, was appointed as an NDP Senator, but the NDP opposes the existence of the Senate and does not recognize her as part of its caucus.[1]). The Department of Public Works was at the centre of thesponsorship scandal and spends billions of dollars per year, and the Conservatives singled the department out for criticism as an example of what they saw as a lack of accountability.[citation needed]
Fortier himself claimed he didn't run for a seat because "I didn't want to run in the election. I had a great career, five young kids, and so it wasn't the right situation for me to run when the election came around. That's just the simple truth."[2]
In hisblog,Andrew Coyne commented that "it is a fine thing for a Prime Minister elected on a platform of democratic accountability, who promised he would not appoint anyone who was not elected, either to cabinet or to the Senate, to then turn around and do both at one go."[3]Jeffrey Simpson ofThe Globe and Mail wrote that "with breathtaking insouciance, Prime Minister Stephen Harper jettisoned, or at least delayed, his promise to only elect senators".[4][permanent dead link]
However, theToronto Star'sChantal Hébert defended the appointments of Fortier and Emerson to Cabinet, arguing that the problem is with thefirst-past-the-post system which allows entire parts of the country (such as large cities) to be unrepresented in government. For example, the Conservatives were unable to win any seats inToronto,Montreal andVancouver in the last election, while the Liberals have only won four seats inEdmonton since1968 and have only elected three MPs fromCalgary sinceAlberta joined Confederation in 1905.
Michael Fortier was loudly booed at the opening ceremonies of the2006 World Outgames, anLGBT sporting event and cultural festival held in Montreal. The Conservative senator's speech was interrupted as he attempted to welcome the estimated crowd of 40,000 at theOlympic Stadium that evening. Montreal MayorGérald Tremblay, who was greeted with sustained applause, intervened (unsuccessfully) to urge the crowd to listen "with respect" to the representative of the Canadian government.[2]
On November 21, 2006, Fortier announced that he would seek election to the House of Commons in the riding ofVaudreuil-Soulanges in thenext federal election, which he lost. The opposition parties pressured him to run in the by-election on November 27 inRepentigny. However, Fortier repeated his original promise to run in the next general election.[5]
Fortier confirmed June 11, 2008 that he dismissed senior Quebec adviser Bernard Cote after learning that Cote briefly datedJulie Couillard last year while she was attempting to win a government contract. Cote had to resign because of a perceived conflict of interest, since Public Works was handling the building contracts Couillard was bidding on, Fortier said. Fortier told reporters that Cote, "should have actually recused himself from this matter, which he didn't do, hence his resignation." Couillard sparked the resignation of foreign ministerMaxime Bernier in May 2008 when she went public with the fact her former paramour had forgotten classified NATO briefing documents at her Montreal home for more than a month.[3]
While he chose not to run in an earlier by-election, Fortier was a candidate for the riding ofVaudreuil-Soulanges in the2008 federal election, in fulfilment of his promise made at the time of his 2006 Senate appointment.[4] In order to fulfill this promise, on September 8, 2008, he resigned from the Senate to run in the general election.[5]
On election night, he was soundly defeated by popularBloc Québécois incumbentMeili Faille,[6] who captured 41.34% of the vote compared to Fortier's 23.69%.
| 2008 Canadian federal election:Vaudreuil—Soulanges | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Bloc Québécois | Meili Faille | 27,044 | 41.34 | -1.82 | $80,072 | |||
| Conservative | Michael Fortier | 15,496 | 23.69 | +4.69 | $87,967 | |||
| Liberal | Brigitte Legault | 13,954 | 21.33 | -6.96 | $32,958 | |||
| New Democratic | Maxime Héroux-Legault | 6,298 | 9.63 | +4.09 | $1,519 | |||
| Green | Jean-Yves Massenet | 2,625 | 4.01 | +0.10 | $1,913 | |||
| Total valid votes/expense limit | 65,417 | 100.00 | $96,487 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 729 | 1.10 | ||||||
| Turnout | 66,146 | 67.76 | ||||||
| 28th Canadian Ministry (2006-2015) – Cabinet ofStephen Harper | ||
| Cabinet posts (2) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Predecessor | Office | Successor |
| David Emerson | Minister of International Trade 25 June 2008 – 29 October 2008 | Stockwell Day |
| Scott Brison | Minister of Public Works and Government Services 6 February 2006 – 25 June 2008 | Christian Paradis |
