Claude Morin

Claude Morin, professor, politician (b at Montmorency, Qué 16 May 1929). A Laval professor 1956-63, after 1960 he became one of the most influential advisers to Jean LESAGE's administration. He was considered one of the prime thinkers behind the QUIET REVOLUTION and held the positions of economic adviser (1960-63), deputy minister of federal-provincial affairs (1963-67) and deputy minister of intergovernmental affairs (1967-71). He resigned after political disagreements with Robert BOURASSA's government to become professor at the École nationale d'administration publique, Université du Québec, and in 1972 joined the Parti Québécois. He was defeated in the riding of Louis-Hébert in 1973 but elected in 1976.

As minister of intergovernmental affairs for the PQ government (November 1976 to January 1982) Morin was a principal architect of the electoral strategy that brought the party to power and of its strategy for the referendum on SOVEREIGNTY-ASSOCIATION and for constitutional negotiations with the federal government (1976- 81). He resigned in January 1982 over a dispute with René LÉVESQUE concerning the direction the PQ was taking on sovereignty-association, returning to his academic career. In 1991 he published his political memoirs, Mes Premiers ministres. In 1992 he was embarrassed by revelations that for several years during the 1970s he had been a paid informant of the RCMP under the code name "French Minuet." Morin could not deny spying for the RCMP but he claimed that he did it only in order to find out what the RCMP were investigating and that he only turned over useless information. He published a political autobiography, Les Choses comme elles étaient, in 1994 and retired from the École nationale d'administration publique in 1996.

Author DANIEL LATOUCHE