Topic: Michael Fortier

Michael M. Fortier, PC (born January 10, 1962) is a former Canadian Minister of International Trade and a former Conservative senator from Quebec. He lost as the Conservative candidate for the riding of Vaudreuil-Soulanges in the 2008 Canadian election.

As a former member of the Canadian Cabinet, he is a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada and thus has the right to the style The Honourable and the post-nominal designation PC for life. He is the brother of former Quebec Liberal Party MNA Margaret Delisle.

Fortier was appointed to Cabinet on 6 February 2006, the day Stephen Harper's minority government took office. A financier and lawyer from Montreal, he had not been elected as a member of the House of Commons at the time he was appointed, nor was he a member of the Senate. Harper announced that Fortier would be appointed to the Senate, but would be expected to step down and run for a seat in the House of Commons at the next election. On February 27, 2006, Fortier was formally summoned to the Senate. This practice is unusual in modern Canada, but there is precedent for such a practice: in 1979, former Prime Minister Joe Clark appointed Quebec Senator Jacques Flynn Minister of Justice because of his lack of representation in that province. In 1972, when Trudeau failed to win a single seat west of Manitoba, he appointed senators to cabinet as well. 19th century Prime Ministers John Abbott and Mackenzie Bowell served their entire terms in government as Senators.