View source for Lawrence Cannon

{{Short description|Canadian politician}}
{{about||the Canadian lawyer, politician, and judge|Lawrence Arthur Dumoulin Cannon|the Canadian lawyer and judge|Lawrence John Cannon}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|honorific-prefix = [[The Honourable]]
|name             = Lawrence Cannon
|honorific-suffix = [[Queen's Privy Council for Canada|PC]]
|image            = Lawrence Cannon on March 29, 2010.jpg
|office1          = [[Canadian Ambassador to France]]
|primeminister1   = [[Stephen Harper]]<br />[[Justin Trudeau]]
|term_start1      = May 10, 2012
|term_end1        = September 29, 2017
|predecessor1     = [[Marc Lortie]]
|successor1       = [[Isabelle Hudon]]
|office2          = [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]]
|primeminister2   = [[Stephen Harper]]
|term_start2      = October 30, 2008
|term_end2        = May 18, 2011
|predecessor2     = [[David Emerson]]
|successor2       = [[John Baird (Canadian politician)|John Baird]]
|office3          = [[Minister of Transport (Canada)|Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities]]
|primeminister3   = [[Stephen Harper]]
|term_start3      = February 6, 2006
|term_end3        = October 30, 2008
|predecessor3     = [[Jean Lapierre]]
|successor3       = [[John Baird (Canadian politician)|John Baird]]
|riding4          = [[Pontiac (federal electoral district)|Pontiac]]
|parliament4      = Canadian
|term_start4      = January 23, 2006
|term_end4        = May 2, 2011
|predecessor4     = [[David Smith (Quebec politician)|David Smith]]
|successor4       = [[Mathieu Ravignat]]
|office5          = [[Gatineau City Council]]lor
|term_start5      = November 4, 2001
|term_end5        = November 5, 2005
|predecessor5     = ''District created''
|successor5       = Alain Pilon
|constituency5    = [[Val-Tétreau District]]
|office6          = Member of the [[National Assembly of Quebec]] for [[La Peltrie]]
|term_start6      = December 2, 1985
|term_end6        = September 12, 1994
|predecessor6     = [[Pauline Marois]]
|successor6       = [[Michel Côté (MNA)|Michel Côté]]
|birth_date       = {{birth date and age|1947|12|6}}
|birth_place      = [[Quebec City]], Quebec, Canada
|death_date       = 
|death_place      = 
|party            = [[Conservative Party of Canada|Conservative Party]] <small>(2003–present)</small>
|otherparty       = [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal Party]] <small>(Before 2003)</small>
|alma_mater       = [[Université de Montréal|University of Montreal]]<br />[[Université Laval|Laval University]]
|profession       = Businessman<br />communications consultant<br />political assistant
}}
'''Lawrence Cannon''', {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|PC}} (born December 6, 1947) is a Canadian politician from [[Quebec]] and Prime Minister [[Stephen Harper]]'s former [[Quebec lieutenant]]. In early 2006, he was made the [[Minister of Transport (Canada)|Minister of Transport]]. On October 30, 2008, he relinquished oversight of Transport and was sworn in as [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]]. He was defeated in the 2011 federal election by the NDP's [[Mathieu Ravignat]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ottawacitizen.com/sports/Cannon+loses+newcomer+major+upset/4714916/story.html |title=Cannon loses to newcomer in major upset |website=ottawacitizen.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507023335/http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Cannon+loses+newcomer+major+upset/4714916/story.html |archive-date=2011-05-07}}</ref> He was appointed as [[Canadian Ambassador to France]] in May 2012,<ref name=Clark>{{cite news|last=Clark|first=Campbell|title=Harper rewards defeated minister Lawrence Cannon with Paris post|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/harper-rewards-defeated-minister-lawrence-cannon-with-paris-post/article4106024/|access-date=March 31, 2021|newspaper=The Globe and Mail|date=May 10, 2012}}</ref> and he served in that position until September 2017.<ref name="CBC News">{{cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/lawrence-cannon-ambassador-france-1.4180613 |title=Lawrence Cannon stepping down as ambassador to France in September |publisher=CBC News |access-date=2 July 2018}}</ref>

==Life and career==

===Genealogy===
[[File:Lawrence Cannon Profile Image.jpg|thumb|left|Cannon in 2008]]
Cannon is the son of government lawyer Louis Cannon and [[Quebec]] television broadcast pioneer Rosemary "Posie" Power, and the grandson of [[Lucien Cannon]] and [[Charles Gavan Power]]. He is also the grand-nephew of [[Lawrence Arthur Dumoulin Cannon]], a long-time [[Quebec Liberal Party|Liberal]] politician and [[Supreme Court of Canada|Supreme Court]] judge. He is the great-grandson{{citation needed|date=November 2017}} of [[Sir Charles Fitzpatrick]], defender of [[Louis Riel]] and former Senior Minister in Laurier's cabinet.  He is of Irish and [[French Canadian]] descent.

The extended Cannon family has had strong regional and national political influence in Canada for over a century and is considered to be influential as one of Canada's hereditary ruling class families, members having served in positions as lawyers, judges, Supreme Court judges, senators, ministers of defence, solicitors general, and members of parliament.  They have had large influence in the national resource industries, as "barons" in the lumber industry particularly, as well as in broadcasting.

The most famous member of the family was Cannon's maternal grandfather, [[Charles Gavan Power|Charles "Chubby" Power]], a confidante and [[Minister of National Defence (Canada)|Minister of National Defence for Air]] in the [[Cabinet of Canada|Cabinet]] of Prime Minister [[Mackenzie King]].

===Early life===
Cannon grew up fluently [[multilingual|bilingual]]; his father was [[francophone]] while his mother was [[English-speaking Quebecker|anglophone]]. He also grew up alongside his older brother, Françis Cannon. He was educated at [[French language|French speaking]] public junior and high schools.

He graduated in [[political science]] from the [[Université de Montréal]] in 1971; and then worked for Liberal [[Premier]] [[Robert Bourassa]] as correspondence secretary, leaving in 1976 for higher academic studies. Cannon received an [[MBA]] from [[Université Laval]] in 1979. He worked then in private sector as a financial analyst for [[Société de développement industriel]] until 1981; and then as head of [[Les Radiateurs Roy ltée]] from September 1981, to December 1985.

Cannon has been a long-time member of the [[Knights of Columbus]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Ottawa |first=The |url=http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/decisioncanada/story.html?id=1760f5d5-8248-41b9-85aa-d21d2a78b357 |title=Cannon cruises to re-election in Pontiac |publisher=Canada.com |date=October 15, 2008 |access-date=5 July 2010}}</ref>

===Provincial political career===
Cannon then was elected in 1985 as a member of the [[Quebec Liberal Party]] to the [[National Assembly of Quebec]] for the provincial riding of [[La Peltrie]]; and then served as Parliamentary Secretary: notably to the Minister of Foreign Trade and Technological Development, and then Tourism. From October 1990 to January 1994 he was minister for communications, and implemented the 911 emergency system as well as the Privacy Act within Quebec. He was also active with the [[Liberal Party of Canada|federal Liberals]] supporting [[Sheila Copps]] (who as well later became [[Deputy Prime Minister of Canada]]) in her attempt to win the federal [[1990 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election|1990 Liberal leadership election]] won instead by [[Jean Chrétien]].

===Private sector work===
Cannon worked in private industry as vice-president of [[Unitel Communications Incorporated|Unitel]]; now [[AT&T]] Canada Corp. during the AT&T takeover of the Canadian firm; and in other concerns between 1994 and 2001 primarily in the field of information technologies. Cannon then remarried; and took an interest in Quebec local politics building a new constituency.

===Constituency building in local politics===
Cannon was elected as [[city council|councillor]] for [[Gatineau City Council]] in 2001, representing [[Hull, Quebec|Hull]]'s [[Val-Tétreau District]], under mayor [[Yves Ducharme]]. He served as president of the [[Société de Transport de l'Outaouais (STO)|Société de Transport de l'Outaouais]] from January 2002 to November 2005, while at the same time he was appointed president of the [[Association du transport urbain du Québec]]. He had an especial sympathy for solving transport problems in Gatineau by road building rather than public transit approaches. During his mandate, the STO developed a BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) project called "[[Rapibus]]", that has since been completed. His association and ownership of Groupe Cannon and Associates, a consulting company in telecommunications, has received little attention, and this ownership is expected to be put in a [[blind trust]] as is usual in federal politics.

===Foreign policy initiatives===
Cannon travelled extensively in Europe and the Americas both in and out of public life. In 2001, Cannon was appointed to the Board of the [[World Commerce Institute]], and then as president and general manager of AmeriContact for the [[Quebec City Summit of the Americas]] in Quebec City.

===Federal politics===
[[File:L. Cannon, S. Day, John R. Nay and Jeffrey Watson.jpg|thumb|Cannon at a June 2008 announcement on border safety]]
[[File:Lawrence Cannon 2010.jpg|thumb|Cannon standing next to Haitian　Prime Minister [[Jean-Max Bellerive]] (left) and U.S. Secretary of State [[Hillary Clinton]] in Montreal at an emergency relief summit on the [[2010 Haiti earthquake]]]]
Although Cannon and his family have historically supported the [[Liberal Party of Canada|federal Liberals]], he switched to the [[Conservative Party of Canada]] in the early 2000s. At the time, his switch to the Conservative Party raised eyebrows among the political class and the media, which generally attributed the move to his inability to make an impression with the Liberal Party. On September 16, 2005, he was named deputy chief of staff and deputy executive director of the Conservative Party. He was also named as [[Quebec lieutenant]] to party leader [[Stephen Harper]].

He successfully ran as a Conservative candidate in the riding of [[Pontiac (federal electoral district)|Pontiac]] in the [[2006 Canadian federal election|2006 federal election]], beating incumbent Liberal M.P. [[David Smith (Quebec politician)|David Smith]]. Winning with 33.68% of the vote, Cannon gained support from traditional Liberal voters. The Liberals had held the riding and its predecessors for all but nine years since 1935, and the Conservative candidate had finished a distant third in [[2004 Canadian federal election|2004]] with 22.15% of the vote.

On February 6, 2006, he was sworn in as [[Minister of Transport (Canada)|Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities]]. This portfolio includes [[Transport Canada]], [[Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada|Infrastructure Canada]], the Canadian Transportation Agency, the Transportation Appeal Tribunal of Canada and 16 Crown corporations.<ref>[http://www.tc.gc.ca/aboutus/crowncorporations.htm ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925034915/http://www.tc.gc.ca/aboutus/crowncorporations.htm |date=September 25, 2006 }}</ref>

Many pundits had predicted that Cannon would also be named [[Deputy Prime Minister of Canada]], but Harper chose not to retain that office. However, Cannon was first on the list of ministers designated to fill in for Harper if he was unable to perform his duties, making him Deputy Prime Minister in practice if not in name. This was further emphasized when Cannon seconded the [[pro forma]] bill to start the first session of the [[39th Canadian Parliament]]; the bill is introduced before the House takes the [[Speech from the Throne]] under consideration to maintain the right of the House to consider matters other than those directed to it by the crown. This bill is normally proposed by the Prime Minister and seconded by either the Deputy Prime Minister or the Government House Leader.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=39&Ses=1&DocId=2154159 |title=Journals (No. 002) |publisher=.parl.gc.ca |access-date=5 July 2010}}</ref>

Following the [[2008 Canadian federal election|2008 federal election]], Cannon was appointed as [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada)|Minister of Foreign Affairs]]. Cannon was one of the higher-ranking [[Red Tory|Red Tories]] in the Harper cabinet. In 2009, he denied diplomat [[Richard Colvin (diplomat)|Richard Colvin]]'s claim that Afghan prisoners transferred from the Canadian forces to the Afghan police were tortured.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://vancouversun.com/news/Cannon+denies+Canadian+detainees+tortured+Afghans/2241282/story.html |title=Cannon denies all Canadian detainees tortured by Afghans |first=Matthew |last=Fisher |work=The Vancouver Sun |publisher=Canwest News Service |date=November 19, 2009}}</ref>

Cannon was defeated in the 2011 election by NDP challenger [[Mathieu Ravignat]], winning only 29.5 percent of the vote. His place as Minister of Foreign Affairs was taken by [[John Baird (Canadian politician)|John Baird]].

===Diplomatic post===
On May 10, 2012, Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Cannon as [[Canadian Ambassador to France]].<ref name=Clark/> He served in that position until September 2017,<ref name="CBC News"/> when he was succeeded by [[Isabelle Hudon]].<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-ambassador-paris-hudon-1.4313420| title=Trudeau names Isabelle Hudon new ambassador in Paris| date=September 29, 2017 |publisher=CBC News |access-date=2 July 2018}}</ref>

==Controversial remarks==
In June 2009, after being asked whether the Canadian government will "choose not to abandon [[Ronald Allen Smith]], a Canadian who has been on death row in Montana for over 25 years", Cannon answered "(...) I will be very clear on this, clemency is not an obligation. It must be earned. We will study each appeal for clemency individually."<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3988409&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=2#Int-2834183 | title=Debates (Hansard) No. 75 - June 15, 2009 (40-2) - House of Commons of Canada }}</ref>

==Abousfian Abdelrazik==
On September 21, 2009, Canadian [[Abousfian Abdelrazik]] sued Cannon for $3-million alleging misfeasance in public office, intentional infliction of mental suffering, and violation of Abdelrazik's constitutional rights under ss. 6, 7 and 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, resulting from Canada's refusal to grant him travel documents to return home, his alleged torture while in detention in Sudan, and his interrogation in Sudan by [[Canadian Security Intelligence Service]] (CSIS) agents while in Sudanese custody.<ref>[http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/archive/00244/Statement_of_claim_244221a.pdf] Statement of Claim of Bdelrazik</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/abdelrazik-sues-ottawa-for-27-million/article4287125/|first=Paul|last=Koring|title=Abdelrazik sues Ottawa for $27-million|work=[[The Globe and Mail]]|date=September 24, 2009|access-date=March 31, 2021}}</ref> On August 30, 2010, the Federal Court refused a motion by Canadian government lawyers seeking to prevent the suit against Cannon from proceeding.<ref>{{Cite news
 |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/abdelrazik-gets-ok-to-sue-canada-1.945883
 |title= Abdelrazik gets OK to sue Canada|date=September 1, 2010
 |publisher=CBC News
 |access-date=April 15, 2014
}}</ref>

==Electoral record==
{{2011 Canadian federal election/Pontiac}}
{{2008 Canadian federal election/Pontiac}}
{{2006 Canadian federal election/Pontiac}}
{{2001 Gatineau municipal election/Council/Val-Tétreau}}
{{Canadian election result/top|QC|1989|La Peltrie|percent=yes}}
{{CANelec|QC|Liberal |Lawrence Cannon|20,528|52.17}}
{{CANelec|QC|PQ|Monique Cloutier|16,250|41.30}}
{{CANelec|QC|NDP (1963)|Claude Pelletier|2,567|6.52}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|39,345|97.15}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total rejected ballots|1,155|2.85}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Turnout|40,500|80.16}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Electors on the lists|50,526|&ndash;|}}
{{end}}
{{Canadian election result/top|QC|1985|La Peltrie|percent=yes}}
{{CANelec|QC|Liberal |Lawrence Cannon|19,819|55.93}}
{{CANelec|QC|PQ|[[Pauline Marois]]|13,462|37.99}}
{{CANelec|QC|NDP (1963)|Denis Jeffrey|1,968|5.55}}
{{CANelec|QC|[[Parti du socialisme chrétien|Christian Socialism]]|Gilles Bertrand|189|0.53}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total valid votes|35,438|98.55}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Total rejected ballots|520|1.45}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Turnout|35,958|82.83}}
{{Canadian election result/total|Electors on the lists|43,410|&ndash;|}}
{{end}}

==See also==
* [[List of Canadian political families]]
* [[Université Laval]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Canadian Parliament links|ID=10972}}
* {{Quebec MNA biography|cannon-lawrence-2367}}
* [http://www.cyberpresse.ca/le-droit/actualites/actualites-nationales/200905/29/01-860920-juges-bilingues-a-la-cour-supreme-lemieux-est-rabroue-par-fraser.php]

{{CA-Ministers of Foreign Affairs}}
{{CA-Ministers of Transport}}
{{Harper Ministry}}
{{Second Bourassa Ministry}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cannon, Lawrence}}
[[Category:1947 births]]
[[Category:Anglophone Quebec people]]
[[Category:Ministers of foreign affairs of Canada]]
[[Category:Ministers of transport of Canada]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of Canada to France]]
[[Category:Canadian people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:Cannon family (Canada)|Lawrence]]
[[Category:Conservative Party of Canada MPs]]
[[Category:Gatineau city councillors]]
[[Category:Quebecers of French descent]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Members of the Executive Council of Quebec]]
[[Category:Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec]]
[[Category:Members of the King's Privy Council for Canada]]
[[Category:Politicians from Quebec City]]
[[Category:Quebec Liberal Party MNAs]]
[[Category:Quebec lieutenants]]
[[Category:Quebec people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:Université de Montréal alumni]]
[[Category:Université Laval alumni]]
[[Category:Members of the 28th Canadian Ministry]]
[[Category:Vice presidents of the National Assembly of Quebec]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec]]
[[Category:21st-century members of the House of Commons of Canada]]