Stéphane Dion — Saint-Laurent-Cartierville

On December 2, 2006, at one of the most exciting Liberal leadership conventions in party history, Stéphane Dion was elected as the 11th leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

First elected in a 1996 by-election, Mr. Dion was re-elected in 1997, 2000, 2004, 2006 and 2008 in the riding of Saint-Laurent – Cartierville.

In July 2004, under former Prime Minister Paul Martin, Mr. Dion was appointed Environment Minister. As Minister, Mr. Dion won international agreement to extend the Kyoto protocol beyond 2012 at the follow-up to the Kyoto Conference on Climate Change in Montreal in December 2005.

Mr. Dion was appointed Intergovernmental Affairs Minister in January 1996 under former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, where he worked to improve our federation. He developed the federal government’s case against unilateral secession, which would have jeopardized the rights of Quebecers and all Canadians, obtained a favourable opinion from the Supreme Court of Canada, and turned the court’s opinion into law through the Clarity Act, passed in 2000.

Mr. Dion graduated from Université Laval with a B.A. in 1977 and an M.A. in 1979, both in political science. In 1986 he received his doctorate in sociology from the Institut d’études politiques in Paris.

Before entering politics, Mr. Dion taught public administration and political science at the Université de Montréal from 1984 to 1996. He lectured at the Université de Moncton in 1984, was a visiting professor at the Brookings Institution in Washington, at the Laboratoire d’économie politique in Paris and at the Canadian Centre for Management Development in Ottawa.

Mr. Dion is married to Janine Krieber, and has one daughter, Jeanne.

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