INDEPTH: CLAUDE RYAN
Lani Krantz, CBC News Online | Jan. 5, 2004
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Former Quebec Liberal leader Claude Ryan was born in Montreal on January 26, 1925.
He attended school in Montreal and Rome and, in 1945, became the national secretary of L'Action catholique, a group organized to link professionals to the social work of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. He remained in that position until 1962 when he went on to work with the Quebec Ministry of Education.
In 1964, he took over the editorship of Montreal's Le Devoir, where he cultivated a reputation for being a hard-nosed political pundit. His influence won him respect even among the targets of his criticism. Robert Bourassa, premier of Quebec during the October Crisis and one-time object of Ryan's criticism in Le Devoir, was actually a close political ally.
In 1978, Ryan left Le Devoir to succeed Bourassa as leader of the Quebec Liberal party. He entered the National Assembly the next year as the member for Argenteuil. As an MNA, he began campaigning against Quebec separation.
During the 1980 Quebec sovereignty referendum, Ryan led the "Non" side against Premier René Levesque. Ryan took a characteristically measured approach to the campaign, which was upstaged by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's impassioned speech before the vote.
The Quebec Liberals were again defeated by the Parti Québécois a year later in the 1981 election. Ryan resigned in the fall of 1982. Bourassa replaced him as leader.
After the Liberals won the Quebec election in 1985, Bourassa appointed Ryan to the provincial education portfolio. In the 1989 cabinet he served as minister of education and minister of higher education and science, with responsibility for the administration of the French-language charter.
In 1990, after resolution of the Oka standoff between the Mohawk Warriors Society, the Sûreté du Québec and the Canadian Armed Forces, Ryan was named to lead the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Public Security. He maintained responsibility for the charter. Ryan retired from politics in 1994.
After being admitted to the Hotel-Dieu Hospital with digestive problems, the 78-year-old Ryan was sent home on December 19, 2003, with a diagnosis of inoperable stomach cancer. Even in his declining health, Ryan was reported to have drafted the news release that announced his condition.
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