Diane Marleau, (June 21, 1943 – January 30, 2013)"Longtime Sudbury MP Diane Marleau dies". Sudbury Star, January 30, 2013. was a Canadian politician. She represented the riding of Sudbury in the House of Commons of Canada from 1988 to 2008, and was a cabinet minister in the government of Jean Chrétien. Marleau was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada.
She was married to Paul Marleau, a prominent businessman in Sudbury who ran for mayor of the city in the 2003 municipal election.
Early life and career
Marleau was born Diane Paulette Lebel"Friends, rivals remember Marleau". Sudbury Star, January 31, 2013. in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, one of three children raised by a single mother in a low-income household. She was a childhood friend of Marie-Paule Charette, who later became a Senator and president of the Liberal Party.
She studied commerce at the University of Ottawa, but left after three years when she married fellow student Paul Marleau, with whom she had three children: Brigitte, Donald and Stéphane, and moved to Sudbury. She worked as the secretary to a medical doctor for five years, prior to the introduction of Medicare. She later said that this experience made her realize the importance of a publicly funded health system, saying "I was the one who had to collect the bills. It gave me an understanding of what it means when people are obliged to pay to see a doctor."
Marleau returned to Laurentian University as a mature student, and completed a Bachelor's Degree in Economics (1976)."Diane Marleau", Canada Votes '97, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She worked as an accountant, managed an office for a firm of chartered accountants (Thorne and Riddell and then with Collins, Barrow-Maheux Noiseux), and operated a restaurant she co-owned with her husband. She also served on the boards of Laurentian University and Laurentian Hospital.William Johnson, ""Average Canadian' : Health minister exudes determination and competence", Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 3 December 1993, A9; Rosemary Spiers, "A defender of medicare: 'Ordinary' Diane Marleau has an extraordinary task", Toronto Star, 9 December 1993, A25. Marleau worked on Judy Erola's campaign in the 1980 federal election, and later credited Erola as a role model for her own career in public life.Trish Crawford, "Erola revs up for another challenge", Toronto Star, 19 April 1987, D1.
Municipal politics
Marleau entered politics at the municipal level, serving as a Sudbury alderman and a Regional Municipality of Sudbury councillor from 1980 to 1985. She chaired the city's Finance Committee, and backed a "pay as you go" debt-elimination plan that prohibited borrowing on capital investments.Marleau also supported a one-tier regional government. John Sewell, "Sudbury's albatross", Globe and Mail, 9 July 1985, P13; Rosemary Spiers, "A defender of medicare: 'Ordinary' Diane Marleau has an extraordinary task", Toronto Star, 9 December 1993, A25; "Influential women of North Ontario: Diane Marleau", Northern Ontario Business, 1 September 1998, p. S10. She served on the board of governors of Cambrian College, and was a member of the Ontario Advisory Council on Women's Issues.Mick Lowe, "Labor boss angered by college governors", Globe and Mail, 23 January 1985, M6; Robert Stephens, "Window-dressing Liberal team not real power, insider says", Globe and Mail, 1 June 1985, P5. In 1983, she chaired the Canadian Games for Physically Disabled.Canada Votes 2006: Sudbury, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, accessed 12 March 2008.
After the 1985 provincial election, Ontario Liberal Party leader David Peterson appointed Marleau to a ten-member transition team that assisted the party as it formed government for the first time in 42 years.Robert Stephens, "Liberals appoint transfer team", Globe and Mail, 31 May 1985, P1. She ran for Mayor of Sudbury in the 1985 municipal elections, and lost to incumbent Peter Wong.Rudy Platiel, "Leaders defeated all over the province", Globe and Mail, 13 November 1985, A1. She was asked to run for the Ontario Liberal Party in the 1987 provincial election, but declined."Influential women of North Ontario: Diane Marleau", Northern Ontario Business, 1 September 1998, p. S10. Marleau was considered to be on the right wing of the Liberal Party in this period, although she later identified with a more left-wing position.Edward Greenspon, "Bird on a wire", Globe and Mail, 27 August 1994, D1.
Member of Parliament
Marleau was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1988 federal election. The Progressive Conservative Party under Brian Mulroney won a majority government in this election, and Marleau served in the Official Opposition as critic for Energy, Mines and Resources. She supported Jean Chrétien's successful bid for the party leadership in 1990, and was appointed to a five-person working group to design the party's tax policy.Patricia Poirier, "Chrétien would scrap GST", Globe and Mail, 29 October 1990, A1; Paul Adams, "Caucus revolt brewing as Liberals convene", Globe and Mail, 15 March 2000, A4. She was named deputy Liberal whip in 1991, and became associate finance critic in 1992.Rosemary Spiers, "Chrétien names Copps deputy Liberal leader", Toronto Star, 31 January 1991, A4; "Marchi, Tobin take on Liberal campaign role", Toronto Star, 16 January 1992, A12. Marleau criticized Bank of Canada governor John Crow during this period, arguing that his high interest rate policy was driving the economy into a recession.Shawn McCarthy, "Can't just cut interest rates to spur economy, Crow insists", Toronto Star, 3 June 1993, F1.
Cabinet minister
Minister of Health
The Liberals won a majority government in 1993 federal election, and incoming Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed Marleau as Minister of National Health and Welfare and Minister of Amateur Sport on November 4, 1993. This came as a surprise to many political observers, as Marleau did not have the national profile normally associated with Health portfolio. Some have speculated that Chrétien originally planned to appoint Marleau as Minister of National Revenue, and assigned her to Health as a late replacement for Sheila Copps and/or Hedy Fry.Ross Howard, "Health Minister took turn for the worse, critics say", Globe and Mail, 10 February 1994, A6; Edward Greenspon, "Bird on a wire", Globe and Mail, 27 August 1994, D1.
Public health care
Marleau is a vocal supporter of public medicare. As Health Minister, she once said that she opposed user fees on the grounds that they discourage poor people from seeking medical treatment until the advanced stages of illness.William Johnson, ""Average Canadian' : Health minister exudes determination and competence", Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 3 December 1993, A9; Rosemary Speirs, "'No tax on sickness' federal Liberals vow", Toronto Star, 29 January 1994, A1.
She intervened on more than one occasion to ensure that provincial governments upheld the principles of the Canada Health Act. Marleau withheld $750,000 in transfer payments to British Columbia in April 1994, after some doctors in that province extra-billed their patients for services.Derek Ferguson, "The federal government is cutting health-care payments to [...]", Toronto Star, 27 April 1994, A11; Scott Feschuk, "Marleau renews threat to Alberta", Globe and Mail, 29 November 1994, A1. She defended this decision by arguing that it was inappropriate for taxpayers to subsidize private medicine.Diane Marleau, letter, Globe and Mail, 3 May 1994, A22. The British Columbia government supported her decision, and pledged to work with her in the future against extra-billing.Rosemary Speirs, "Ottawa withholds health funds", Toronto Star, 19 May 1994, A3. Marleau also expressed concern about Ontario's cuts to out-of-country hospital insurance in the same period, though she added that her government could do little to intervene in this particular situation.See "Controversial cuts in OHIP taking place on schedule", Toronto Star, 30 June 1994, A8; William Walker, "Snowbirds file suit over cuts in OHIP", Toronto Star, 17 August 1998, A8. See also Thomas Walkom, "Excuse me, is there a health minister in the house?", Toronto Star, 18 August 1994, A21 and Diane Marleau, letter, Toronto Star, 25 August 1994, A22.
Marleau later took action to stop provincial governments from funding semi-private clinics that required patients to pay facility fees. This was primarily directed against Alberta, where the provincial government of Ralph Klein argued that such fees were not in violation of the Canada Health Act.Tu Thanh Ha and Scott Feschuk, "End extra health fees, Marleau demands", Globe and Mail, 7 June 1995, A1; John Dafoe, "Punishing Alberta", Winnipeg Free Press, 10 January 1995. Perhaps surprisingly, Andrew Coyne came out in support of Marleau's position. See Andrew Coyne, "If you're in the medicare system, you play by medicare rules", Globe and Mail, 16 January 1995, A12. In 1995, Marleau warned the Alberta government that it would face transfer cuts if it did not shut down its private eye and diagnostic clinics before a federal deadline.Derek Ferguson, "Health care under the knife", Toronto Star, 13 July 1995, A17; Rosemary Speirs, "Marleau plans to crack down on Alberta", Toronto Star, 29 August 1995, A17; Craig McInnes, "Deadline firm to stop funding private clinics", Globe and Mail, 20 September 1995, A3. Alberta agreed to develop a new policy shortly before time expired.The province also called for the deadline to be extended, a demand that Marleau rejected. Alanna Mitchell, "Alberta surrenders in clinic dispute", Globe and Mail, 12 October 1995, A2; Shawn McCarthy, "Deadline passes for penalties on clinics", Toronto Star, 16 October 1995, A3. Marleau later indicated that her standoff with Alberta was opposed by some in the Prime Minister's Office, who worried about encroaching on a provincial jurisdiction during the period of the 1995 Quebec referendum.Brian Laghi, "Pay for MRI and jump the queue: Who will object?", Globe and Mail, 6 December 2002, A14. For his part, Chrétien described Marleau's stand against the Klein government as "courageous" in his 2007 memoirs.Jean Chrétien, My Years As Prime Minister, (Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada), 2007, p. 271.
After Marleau left the Health portfolio, the Chrétien government allowed Alberta doctors to work in both the public and private sectors by selling services not deemed "medically necessary". This did not technically constitute extra billing, as the services were not covered by medicare. Marleau opposed this decision.Thomas Walkom, "Back from the grave", Toronto Star, 4 December 1999, p. 1; Thomas Walkom, "Liberals are all talk no action on medicare", Toronto Star, 21 March 2000, p. 1; Thomas Walkom, "PM is no champion of medicare", Toronto Star, 28 March 2000, p. 1. Walkom originally wrote that Marleau approved Chrétien's compromise plan with Alberta; he corrected himself in the March 28th article.
Federal spending
The Chrétien government's 1995 austerity budget reduced transfer payments to the provinces, and provided lump-sum financing for health and social spending in place of separate budgetary envelopes. Marleau argued that the new approach would free the provinces to spend more money on health, and allow them to better carry out the Canada Health Act's provisions. Some critics argued that the change put medicare at risk, while others suggested it would jeopardize other social programs in favour of health spending.Tu Thanh Ha, "Health standards now easier to maintain, Marleau says", Globe and Mail, 4 March 1995, A1; Thomas Walkom, "Martin's budget has indeed put medicare at risk", Toronto Star, 7 March 1995, A21; Susan Delacourt, "Copps' new book stranger than fiction", Toronto Star, 23 October 2004, A6.
Anti-smoking policy