Honorific-Prefix: | The Honourable |
Robert de Cotret | |
Honorific-Suffix: | PC |
Constituency Mp: | Berthier-Montcalm |
Parliament: | Canadian |
Predecessor: | Electoral District created |
Successor: | Michel Bellehumeur |
Term Start: | November 28, 1988 |
Term End: | October 25, 1993 |
Constituency Mp2: | Berthier—Maskinongé—Lanaudière |
Parliament2: | Canadian |
Predecessor2: | Antonio Yanakis |
Successor2: | Electoral District eliminated (see Berthier—Montcalm, Champlain and Saint-Maurice from 1987 to 2003) |
Term Start2: | September 4, 1984 |
Term End2: | November 28, 1988 |
Office3: | Senator for Ottawa, Ontario |
Appointed3: | Joe Clark |
Term Start3: | June 5, 1979 |
Term End3: | January 14, 1980 Resigned to run in 1980 General Election |
Constituency Mp4: | Ottawa Centre |
Parliament4: | Canadian |
Predecessor4: | Hugh Poulin |
Successor4: | John Leslie Evans |
Term Start4: | October 16, 1978 |
Term End4: | May 22, 1979 |
Office5: | Secretary of State for Canada |
Term Start5: | 21 April 1991 |
Term End5: | 3 January 1993 |
Predecessor5: | Gerry Weiner |
Successor5: | Monique Landry |
Office6: | Minister of the Environment |
Term Start6: | 23 May 1990 |
Term End6: | 20 April 1991 |
Predecessor6: | Lucien Bouchard |
Successor6: | Jean Charest |
Office7: | President of the Treasury Board |
Term Start7: | 17 September 1984 |
Term End7: | 26 August 1987 |
Predecessor7: | Herb Gray |
Successor7: | Don Mazankowski |
Office8: | Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce |
Term Start8: | 4 June 1979 |
Term End8: | 2 March 1980 |
Predecessor8: | Jack Horner |
Successor8: | Herb Gray |
Birth Date: | 20 February 1944 |
Birth Place: | Ottawa, Ontario |
Party: | Progressive Conservative |
Jean Robert René de Cotret, (February 20, 1944 - July 9, 1999) was a Canadian economist and politician.
De Cotret was the President and CEO of the Conference Board of Canada from 1976 to 1978 before being elected to the House of Commons of Canada in a 1978 by-election. He was elected as the Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Ottawa Centre, and was one of the few francophone MPs in the Tory caucus.
Despite the Tory victory in the 1979 general election, de Cotret lost his seat. In need of French-Canadian Cabinet ministers, Prime Minister Joe Clark appointed de Cotret to the Senate of Canada and to Cabinet as Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce in Clark's minority government.
When the government was defeated in a motion of non-confidence, a new election was called for February 18, 1980. De Cotret resigned his Senate seat in order to run for a seat in the House of Commons in the riding of Berthier—Maskinongé, but was defeated in the 1980 election along with the Clark government.
He ran again in the 1984 election, and was elected along with a Progressive Conservative majority government led by Brian Mulroney. Mulroney appointed de Cotret to Cabinet as President of the Treasury Board. In 1987, de Cotret became Minister of Regional Industrial Expansion, and reassumed the Treasury Board portfolio in 1989. In 1990, he became Minister of the Environment and then Secretary of State for Canada in 1991.
De Cotret retired from Cabinet in January 1993 and did not run in the 1993 election.