Jean-François Simard

Who is Jean-François Simard?

Jean-François Simard is a teacher and former Quebec provincial politician and Cabinet Minister. He was the a member of the National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Montmorency from 1998 to 2003. Representing the Parti Québécois, he was a delegate minister for over a year in the Cabinet of Ministers of former Quebec Premier Bernard Landry.

Simard obtained several degrees including a doctorate in sociology from the Université Laval, a master's degree in regional development from the Université du Québec à Rimouski, a bachelor's degree in communications and sociophysiology from the Université du Québec à Montréal and a diploma in European federalism in Italy.

During the late 1980s, he was the vice-president of the Canadian liberal youth-wing but resign following the failure of the Meech Lake Accord in 1990. He then joined the Bloc Québécois and later the Parti Québécois where he was a political adviser for former Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau during the 1995 Quebec referendum campaign. In 1998, he was elected as MNA for Montmorency where he was named until 2001 the Parliamentary Assistant to the State Minister of Education and Youth, François Legault.