André Ouellet

André Ouellet, PC QC (born April 6, 1939) is a former chairman of Canada Post, and a longtime Liberal politician in Canada.

First elected to the Canadian House of Commons in a 1967 by-election, Ouellet served in a number of different positions in the cabinets of Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chrétien. In his capacity as Registrar General of Canada, he was one of the four signatories of the Proclamation of the Constitution Act of 1982 (along with Queen Elizabeth II, Prime Minister Trudeau, and Justice Minister Jean Chrétien). Ouellet represented the safe Liberal seat of Papineau in Montreal for almost thirty years. His hold on the seat was only seriously threatened when the Liberals were crushed by the Progressive Conservative Party in the election of 1984, when he retained his seat by only 500 votes. In opposition, Ouellet became the Liberal's leading figure in the constitutional negotiations that led to the Charlottetown Accord, and was a strong advocate for the constitutional reform proposal, which was rejected in a 1992 referendum.

With the return to power of the Liberals after the 1993 election, Ouellet was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by the new prime minister, Jean Chrétien. Despite his experience, Ouellet was not popular in Quebec, and the lasting legacy of the Charlottetown Accord hurt him. After the close result of the 1995 Quebec referendum, Chrétien wanted to present a new face of his government in Quebec. In 1996, Chrétien appointed Ouellet to head the Canada Post Corporation. Ouellet's seat in the Canadian House of Commons was taken by Pierre Pettigrew in a by-election later that year.

As cabinet minister, Ouellet had served as Postmaster General. As chairman of Canada Post, he implemented reform that led to record profits in the corporation. Recently, controversy surrounded Ouellet as Canada Post was one of the organizations embroiled in the Sponsorship Scandal. As a result, Ouellet was suspended from his position at Canada Post in February 2004 by Prime Minister Paul Martin. He resigned as chairman of Canada Post on August 12, 2004, after it was revealed that he failed to provide invoices for hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal expenses, and that he handed out untendered contracts.

External links

• André Ouellet – Parliament of Canada biography

Electoral record (partial)

Canadian federal election, 1993: Papineau—Saint-Michel
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Liberal	André Ouellet	20,064	51.98	+5.99	$41,411
	Bloc Québécois	Daniel Boucher	15,148	39.24		$18,649
	Progressive Conservative	Carmen de Pontbriand	1,686	4.37	−28.86	$26,388a
	New Democratic Party	Gisèle Charlebois	708	1.83	−13.27	$477
	Natural Law	André Beaudoin	678	1.76		$386
	Marxist-Leninist	Serge Lachapelle	141	0.37	−0.12	$80
	Abolitionist	P.A. D'Aoust	98	0.25		$0
	Commonwealth	Normand Normandeau	78	0.20	−0.24	$0
Total valid votes			38,601	100.00
Total rejected ballots			1,241
Turnout			39,842	75.45	+5.31
Electors on the lists			52,808
a Does not include unpaid claims. Source: Thirty-fifth General Election, 1993: Official Voting Results, Published by the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada. Financial figures taken from the official contributions and expenses submitted by the candidates, provided by Elections Canada.

Canadian federal election, 1988: Papineau
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	∆%	Expenditures
	Liberal	André Ouellet	18,122	45.99	–	$43,413
	Progressive Conservative	Frank Venneri	13,094	33.23		$39,468
	New Democratic	Giovanni Adamo	5,948	15.10		$22,192
	Rhinoceros	Carole Ola Clermont	987	2.51	–	$0
	Green	H. Joseph Vega	469	1.19	–	$0
	Communist	Line Chabot	235	0.60		$18
	N/A (Marxist-Leninist)	Francine Tremblay	193	0.49		$130
	N/A (Revolutionary Workers League)	Michel Dugré	178	0.45		$513
	Commonwealth of Canada	Normand Bélanger	174	0.44		$0
Total valid votes			39,400	100.00
Total rejected ballots			907
Turnout			40,307	70.14
Electors on the lists			57,470
Source: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer, Thirty-fourth General Election, 1988.

Canadian federal election, 1984: Papineau
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	André Ouellet	12,754	38.99
	Progressive Conservative	Tony Iacobaccio	12,053	36.85
	New Democratic	Paul Comtois	4,295	13.13
	Rhinoceros	Christian Jolicoeur	1,925	5.89
	Parti nationaliste	Gilles Maillé	1,169	3.57
	Communist	Suzanne Dagenais	147	0.45
	Social Credit	Roland Mireault	147	0.45
	Commonwealth of Canada	Gilles Gervais	113	0.35
	Non-affiliated	Doris Lacroix	104	0.32
Total valid votes			32,707	100.00
Total rejected ballots			659
Turnout			33,366	70.36
Electors on the lists			47,423
Source: Report of the Chief Electoral Officer, Thirty-third General Election, 1984.