# Gerry St. Germain > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gerry_St._Germain > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Gerry_St._Germain.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_St._Germain > Source revision: 1353100136 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Canadian politician (born 1937) The Honourable Gerry St. Germain PC Minister of State (Forestry) In office September 15, 1988 – December 7, 1988 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney Preceded by Gerald Merrithew Succeeded by Frank Oberle Minister of State (Transport) In office March 31, 1988 – September 15, 1988 Prime Minister Brian Mulroney Preceded by Monique Vézina Succeeded by Shirley Martin Canadian Senator from British Columbia In office June 23, 1993 – November 6, 2012 Appointed by Brian Mulroney Member of Parliament for Mission—Port Moody In office August 29, 1983 – November 21, 1988 Preceded by Mark Rose Succeeded by Riding abolished Personal details Born (1937-11-06) November 6, 1937 (age 88) Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Party Conservative (2003–present) Other political affiliations Progressive Conservative (until 2000) Independent Conservative (2000) Alliance (2000–2003) This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Gerry St. Germain" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) **Gerry St. Germain** [PC](/source/King's_Privy_Council_for_Canada) (born November 6, 1937) is a former [Canadian](/source/Canadians) politician. St. Germain served as a [Conservative](/source/Conservative_Party_of_Canada) [senator](/source/Senate_of_Canada) for [British Columbia](/source/British_Columbia) and previously served as a [Member of Parliament](/source/House_of_Commons_of_Canada). ## Early life and career Born in [Manitoba](/source/Manitoba) of [Metis](/source/M%C3%A9tis_in_Canada) descent, he moved to [British Columbia](/source/British_Columbia). St. Germain had various jobs prior to entering politics, working variously as a [Royal Canadian Air Force](/source/Royal_Canadian_Air_Force) pilot, police officer (Winnipeg and Vancouver Police Departments), building contractor, businessman and poultry farmer. ## Member of Parliament A strong Tory supporter, St. Germain was parachuted as a [Progressive Conservative](/source/Progressive_Conservative_Party_of_Canada) into the [Mission-Port Moody](/source/Mission-Port_Moody) riding for the [byelection](/source/Byelection) there in 1983. St. Germain was elected as a Member of Parliament in the [House of Commons of Canada](/source/House_of_Commons_of_Canada) at a [by-election](/source/By-election) held on the same day in 1983 that [Brian Mulroney](/source/Brian_Mulroney) was elected. St. Germain was [Member of Parliament](/source/Member_of_Parliament_(Canada)) for the now defunct riding of [Mission—Port Moody](/source/Mission%E2%80%94Port_Moody) from then until 1988. In March 1988, St. Germain joined the [Canadian Cabinet](/source/Canadian_Cabinet) as [Minister of Transport (Canada)](/source/Minister_of_Transport_(Canada)) and was later appointed as Minister of Forestry. He was also the political minister for BC at this time. After his riding's boundaries were changed to create the new riding of [Mission-Coquitlam](/source/Mission-Coquitlam), St. Germain was defeated in the [1988 general election](/source/1988_Canadian_federal_election) by [Joy Langan](/source/Joy_Langan). From 1989 to 1995, he was the President of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. ## Senate career In June 1993, he was appointed to the [Senate of Canada](/source/Senate_of_Canada) just prior to Mulroney's retirement as [Prime Minister of Canada](/source/Prime_Minister_of_Canada). He chose to adopt the division of [Langley](/source/Langley%2C_British_Columbia_(city))-[Pemberton](/source/Pemberton%2C_British_Columbia)-[Whistler](/source/Whistler%2C_British_Columbia); such Senate divisions are merely symbolic outside Quebec. In 1998, while still a Progressive Conservative, St. Germain explored the [United Alternative option](/source/Unite_the_Right_(Canada)), formed by [Reform Party of Canada](/source/Reform_Party_of_Canada) leader [Preston Manning](/source/Preston_Manning), which was an attempt to unite the right. In June 2000, he sat as an Independent Conservative senator, and in October 2000 he became the only [Canadian Alliance](/source/Canadian_Alliance) senator. Since the Canadian Alliance formed the [Official Opposition](/source/Official_Opposition_(Canada)) in the House of Commons, St. Germain argued that he should be the [Leader of the Official Opposition in the Senate](/source/Leader_of_the_Official_Opposition_in_the_Senate_(Canada)), but his arguments were rejected by the [Speaker](/source/Speaker_of_the_Senate_of_Canada).[1] At the request of Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen Harper, St. Germain led the negotiations to unite the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party. When the two parties merged in December 2003, St. Germain became a member of the [Conservative Party of Canada](/source/Conservative_Party_of_Canada). On 6 November 2012, St. Germain reached the Senate's mandatory retirement age, 75. Gerry St. Germain was listed as the top spender for expenses in the Canadian Senate spending $378,292 in one year according to a National Post article.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*] ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Daniel Hays, Speaker of the Senate of Canada (February 21, 2001). ["SELECTION OF THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION—SPEAKER'S RULING"](https://sencanada.ca/Content/SEN/Chamber/371/Debates/pdf/008db_2001-02-21-e.pdf) (PDF). *[Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)](/source/Hansard)*. Canada: Senate. pp. 152–155. ## External links - [Gerry St. Germain's Home Page](https://web.archive.org/web/20050913054635/http://sen.parl.gc.ca/gstgermain/) - [Gerry St. Germain – Parliament of Canada biography](https://lop.parl.ca/sites/ParlInfo/default/en_CA/People/Profile?personId=8798) Preceded by Mark Rose Member of Parliament for Mission—Port Moody 1984–1988 Succeeded by Riding abolished v t e Cabinet of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (1984–93) Brian Mulroney Harvie Andre Perrin Beatty André Bissonnette Pierre Blais Suzanne Blais-Grenier Benoît Bouchard Lucien Bouchard Pauline Browes Pierre Cadieux Kim Campbell Pat Carney Andrée Champagne Jean Charest Joe Clark Robert Coates Mary Collins Jean Corbeil Michel Côté David Crombie John Crosbie Marcel Danis Robert de Cotret Paul Dick Jake Epp John Fraser George Hees Ray Hnatyshyn Tom Hockin Otto Jelinek James Kelleher Roch La Salle Monique Landry Robert Layton Doug Lewis Gilles Loiselle Flora MacDonald Elmer MacKay Shirley Martin Marcel Masse Charles Mayer Don Mazankowski John McDermid Barbara McDougall Stewart McInnes Bill McKnight Walter McLean Thomas McMillan Gerald Merrithew Lowell Murray Jack Murta Erik Nielsen Frank Oberle Alan Redway Dufferin Roblin Tom Siddon Gerry St. Germain Sinclair Stevens Bernard Valcourt Monique Vézina Pierre H. Vincent Gerry Weiner Michael Wilson William Winegard John Wise --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Gerry St. Germain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_St._Germain) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_St._Germain?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.