Rodrigue Tremblay

In 2009 (in French) and in 2009 and in 2010 (in English), Tremblay published The Code for Global Ethics, with a preface by Dr. Paul Kurtz.(21)

From 1999 to 2004, Rodrigue Tremblay published four books about politics and geopolitics. The first, in 1999, (Les grands enjeux politiques et économiques du Québec) reproduced a series of articles published in the financial weekly Les Affaires. In 2002, Rodrigue Tremblay published a book of political philosophy entitled L’Heure Juste (The Way It Is). In 2003, his book entitled Pourquoi Bush veut la guerre, Religion, politique et pétrole dans les conflits internationaux, published more than one month before the event, dealt with the March 20, 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq. That latter book was later published in English, in French and in Turkish, under the title The New American Empire.(20)

In 2003 he was one of the signers of the manifesto Humanism and Its Aspirations.

2002–Present, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec; 1975–2001, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Université de Montréal; 1973–1976, Chairman, Department of Economics, Université de Montréal; 1970–1975, Associate Professor, Université de Montréal; 1967–1970, Assistant Professor, Université de Montréal; 1968, Research Fellow, Bank of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.; 1965–67, Research Fellow, Center for Economic Growth, Stanford University, Stanford, California.

1999–2005, Vice president, International Association of French Economists; 1989–1993, Member of the Arbitration Panel, North American Free Trade Agreement, Chap.18; 1986–1987, President, North American Economics and Finance Association; 1976–1981, Member of the Quebec National Assembly, Quebec; 1976–1979, Minister of Industry and Commerce, Government of Quebec, Quebec; 1974–1975, President, Canadian Economic Society; 1970–1975, Advisor, West African Monetary Union; 1969–1971, Economist, Quebec Commission of Inquiry on the Quebec Liquor Trade.

Tremblay has served as an arbiter on the Committee of Dispute Settlements of NAFTA, from 1989 to 1993. Previously, he had served as Minister of Industry and Commerce in the Government of Quebec, from 1976 to 1979.(18) Also in 1979, he published a manifest for the reform of Canadian federalism entitled La 3e option (The 3rd Option) which envisaged a greater degree of political autonomy for the French-speaking province of Quebec. In 1987, when the federal government under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney introduced the Meech Lake Accord, it included some of Tremblay's ideas about political decentralization.(19)

Tremblay was a proponent of the creation of a North American Free Trade Area. He is also a Quebec nationalist who attempted to reconcile the need for economic integration, economies of scale, increased productivity, an active industrial policy, and political and cultural sovereignty for small nations. As early as 1970, he outlined that vision in a book.(1) In 1986, when Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, a politician from Quebec, announced that his Progressive Conservative government would formally propose a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, Tremblay became president of a committee of Canadian economists to support the measure. The committee rallied a large number of Canadian economists behind the policy, and it met with Prime Minister Mulroney on April 25, 1988.(2)

Rodrigue Tremblay was elected a member of the National Assembly of Quebec for the Montreal riding of Gouin in the 1976 Quebec election as candidate of the Parti Québécois. He served as Minister of Industry and Trade in the Government of Quebec, from 1976 to 1979. He sponsored the sale of wine in Quebec's 12,000 private grocery stores. He resigned from the Lévesque Cabinet on September 19, 1979. He resumed his academic career on April 15, 1981.

Tremblay was president of the Société canadienne de science économique (1974–75) and of the North American Economics and Finance Association (1986–87). He was chairman of the Department of Economics of the Université de Montréal (1973–76), member of the Committee of Dispute Settlements of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (1989–93) and vice-president of the Association internationale des économistes de langue française (AIELF), from 1999 to 2005.

Rodrigue Tremblay (born October 13, 1939) is a Canadian economist, humanist and political figure. He is an emeritus professor of economics at the Université de Montréal. He specializes in macroeconomics, international trade and finance, and public finance. He is the author of books in economics and politics. Tremblay's documents and archives are kept at the Center of Archives of the Quebec National Library and Archives, in Montreal, Quebec.

Rodrigue Tremblay was born in Matane, Quebec, on October 13, 1939, the son of George Tremblay (fils), a contractor, and Germaine St-Louis. Tremblay is a graduate of the College of Matane (1st promotion of 1961), (now CÉGEP de Matane), where he received a Université Laval (1961), of Université de Montréal (B.Sc. in Economics 1963), and of Stanford University (M.A. 1965 and Ph.D. 1968). At Stanford, he worked with Paul A. Baran, Lorie Tarshis, Emile Despres and Ronald McKinnon. He is married to Carole Howard Tremblay, an author, and the couple has three children (Jean-Paul, Alain and Joanne) as well as seven grandchildren including Canadian Ski Cross athlete Phil Tremblay. He has been a professor of economics at the Université de Montréal since 1967. He is professor emeritus since 2002.