Jacques Baril (born February 6, 1942) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

politician, cabinet minister and a five-term Member of the

National Assembly of Quebec The National Assembly of Quebec (, ) is the Legislature, legislative body of the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; ). The lieutenant governor of Que ...

Early life

Jacques Baril was born in the town of

Princeville, Quebec Princeville () is a city in the Canadian province of Quebec, located in L'Érable Regional County Municipality in the Centre-du-Québec region. The population was 6,218 as of the Canada 2021 Census. History The county of Stanfold (Princeville) ...

in 1942. He was educated at l'École Sacré-Cœur de Princeville before working as a mechanic at a local garage. In 1966, he began working as a dairy farmer. It was his work as a farmer that opened the door to his political activities. Baril became the director of the Union of Agricultural Producers of Quebec in 1974. He was also the founder of the local beef cooperative in the Arthabaska region. Later he would shift his work toward municipal politics, becoming a municipal councilor in Princeville and organizing locally for the

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (PQ; , ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishi ...

Member of the National Assembly

Baril was elected in the 1976 election, in which the

formed the government for the first time. He was handily reelected four year later in the 1981 election. During his second term in office, Baril served as Deputy Whip for the PQ, as well as Parliamentary Assistant for the Minister of Agriculture. Baril briefly retired in 1985, during which time he served as Mayor of Princeville from 1987 to 1989 and a member of the executive committee for the L'Érable Regional County Municipality. It was also reported that he left provincial politics in protest of Pierre-Marc Johnson's "National Affirmation" policy.Jacques Baril annonce son départ du Parti québécois
sur Bilan du siècle, Université de Sherbrooke He returned to politics in the 1989 election, being re-elected in the 1994 and 1998 elections. During the 36th Quebec Legislature, Baril served in Cabinet, serving as Minister of Transport. In 2003, Baril announced he would retire from political life.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baril, Jacques 1942 births Living people Politicians from Centre-du-Québec Parti Québécois MNAs 20th-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec 21st-century members of the National Assembly of Quebec