Robert Bourassa GOQ MAEcon LLB |
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22nd Premier of Quebec | |
In office May 12, 1970 – November 25, 1976 |
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Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Lieutenant Governor | Hugues Lapointe |
Preceded by | Jean-Jacques Bertrand |
Succeeded by | René Lévesque |
In office December 12, 1985 – January 11, 1994 |
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Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Lieutenant Governor |
Gilles Lamontagne Martial Asselin |
Preceded by | Pierre-Marc Johnson |
Succeeded by | Daniel Johnson, Jr. |
MNA for Saint-Laurent | |
In office January 20, 1986 – January 11, 1994 |
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Preceded by | Germain Leduc |
Succeeded by | Normand Cherry |
MNA for Mercier | |
In office June 5, 1966 – November 25, 1976 |
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Preceded by | District created |
Succeeded by | Gérald Godin |
MNA for Bertrand | |
In office June 3, 1985 – December 2, 1985 |
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Preceded by | Denis Lazure |
Succeeded by | Jean-Guy Parent |
Personal details | |
Born |
Jean-Robert Bourassa July 14, 1933 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
Died | October 2, 1996 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
(aged 63)
Political party | Quebec Liberal Party |
Spouse(s) | Andrée Simard (m. 1958) |
Profession | financial advisor, teacher, lawyer |
Robert Bourassa,GOQ (French pronunciation: [ʁɔbɛʁ buʁasa]; July 14, 1933 – October 2, 1996) was a politician in Quebec, Canada. He served as the 22nd Premier of Quebec in two different mandates, first from May 12, 1970, to November 25, 1976, and then from December 12, 1985, to January 11, 1994, serving a total of just under 15 years as Provincial Premier. The span between his two mandates is the longest of any Premier, Bourassa also has the longest span between his first and last day as a Quebec Premier.
Bourassa was born to a working class family in Montreal, the son of Adrienne (née Courville) (1897-1982) and Aubert Bourassa, a port authority worker. Robert Bourassa graduated from the Université de Montréal law school in 1956 and was admitted to the Barreau du Québec the following year. On August 23, 1958, he married Andrée Simard, an heiress of the powerful shipbuilding Simard family of Sorel, Quebec. Later, he studied at the University of Oxford and also obtained a degree in political economy at Harvard University in 1960. On his return to Quebec, he was employed at the federal Department of National Revenue as a fiscal adviser. He also worked as a professor of public finance at Université de Montréal and Université Laval.
Bourassa was first elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec (MLA) for the riding of Mercier in 1966, then won the Quebec Liberal Party leadership election on January 17, 1970. He positioned himself as a young, competent administrator. He chose "100 000 jobs" as his slogan, which emphasized that jobs creation would be his priority. Bourassa felt the extensive hydro-electric resources of Quebec were the most effective means of completing the modernization of Quebec and sustaining job creation. He successfully led his party into government in the 1970 election, defeating the conservative Union Nationale government and becoming the youngest premier in Quebec history.