Gérard Pelletier

Who was Gérard Pelletier?

Gérard Pelletier, PC, CC was a Canadian journalist and politician.

Pelletier initially worked as a journalist for Le Devoir, a French-language newspaper in Montreal, Quebec. In 1961 he became editor-in-chief of the Montreal daily and North America's largest French circulating newspaper, La Presse. Pelletier, with other French-Canadian intellectuals, Pierre Elliott Trudeau included, founded the journal Cité Libre. First elected to Parliament in 1965, he served as a member of the cabinet of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

Pelletier met Trudeau while studying in France and worked with him and Jean Marchand during the Asbestos Strike of 1949 in Quebec. Dubbed the "Three Wise Men" in English and Les trois colombes in French, they entered politics at the same time in the federal election of 1965. The trio was recruited by Liberal prime minister Lester Pearson to help derail the rising Quebec separatist movement.

He served in various cabinet posts in the Trudeau government until 1975, when he left the Liberal caucus and became ambassador to France and then ambassador to the United Nations. In 1978 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.