Francis Fox

"See also Sir Francis Fox."

Francis Fox, PC, QC (born December 2 1939) is a member of the Senate of Canada. He is a former Canadian Cabinet minister and is the former Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, and thus was a senior aide to Prime Minister Paul Martin. He also worked as a lobbyist in the 1980s.

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Fox is a lawyer by training. He was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons in the 1972 election as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for the riding of Argenteuil—Deux-Montagnes, Quebec. He was re-elected in the 1974 election from the same constituency. In the 1979 and 1980 elections, he was returned as MP for Blainville—Deux-Montagnes before being defeated in that riding in the 1984 election.

Fox was appointed to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in 1976 when he became Solicitor General of Canada. Bilingual, Fox was seen as an up-and-comer in the Liberal cabinet, and even a potential party leader. However, he was forced to resign on January 27, 1978, when it became known that he had forged the signature of his then girlfriend's husband on a form granting permission for her to have an abortion. Although he was married at the time of the scandal, he subsequently divorced his wife. He later married a subsequent girlfriend Vivian Case. He is currently married to Vivian Case, who is an artist, and has three children, John Fox (with his first wife) and Daniel and Julianna Fox (with Vivian). Daniel is currently studying to become a chartered accountant and Julianna is a lawyer.

He returned to Cabinet after the 1980 election when Trudeau appointed him to the position of Secretary of State for Canada and Minister of Communications. He then served as Minister of International Trade in 1984 in the short-lived government of Trudeau's successor, John Turner.

With the defeat of the Turner government and the loss of his own seat, Fox returned to the private sector. He became a lobbyist, and a member of Government Consultants International, a consulting firm, with Frank Moores, Gary Ouellet and Gerald Doucet. Subsequently he was a senior partner in the law firm of Martineau Walker, and later as an executive at Rogers AT&T Wireless.

In 2003, he became a senior member of Paul Martin's transition team as he prepared to succeed Jean Chrétien as prime minister. In 2004, Fox became Martin's principal secretary, but it was announced on August 18 that he would be leaving the position on October 1 in order to return to private life.

In private life, Fox served as the President of defunct minister Liza Frulla's riding.

He was a prominent supporter of failed Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff.

Fox was appointed to the Senate on Martin's recommendation on August 29, 2005.

External links

* [http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/key/bio.asp?Language=E&query=940&s=M Federal Political Biography from the Library of Parliament]