Philippe Couillard

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Philippe Couillard M.D., (born July 27, 1957 in Montreal) is a politician, university professor, and neurosurgeon in Quebec, Canada. He currently serves as the Quebec Minister for Health and Social Services in the government of Jean Charest. Couillard holds a medical degree and a degree in neurosurgery from the Université de Montréal. He was the head of the department of neurosurgery at St-Luc hospital from 1989 to 1992 and again at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke from 2000 to 2003. For a time, he practiced in Saudi Arabia, a move often employed by western physicians to benefit from high pay and no income taxes. In 2003, he left the medical profession to run for a seat in the National Assembly representing the Quebec Liberal Party. He was elected MNA for Mont-Royal in the 2003 election and was appointed Minister of Health and Social Services on April 29, 2003.

Since taking office, he has proven quite skillful in the handling of his department's public relations and is regarded the most popular minister in the Charest government.^[1] His accomplishments during his tenure have included a $4.2 billion dollar increase in the Quebec health budget, the prohibition of smoking in public places, and a reduction in the number of union local accreditations in the health sector.

Another of his projects that may be realised in the future is the construction of two super-hospitals in the Montreal area, that of Université de Montréal and another one from the McGill University. However, planning for these projects has been delayed for various reasons for over eight years (as of 1999) and to date construction has not begun on either super-hospital^[2]. It should be noted that both of these projects were conceived long before Couillard came to power, and in fact Couillard himself has significantly contributed to their delay as he sought to decrease his government's funding of them through the creation of public-private partnerships.

In 2006 and 2007, there were rumours that Couillard would jump to federal politics and being a candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada in a future federal election, but denied it. [1] Meanwhile, Couillard announced his candidacy for the riding of Jean-Talon in the Quebec City area, replacing Margaret Delisle who did not seek a re-election due to health reasons. Couillard won the 2007 elections despite the Action democratique du Quebec's (ADQ) strong performance in the region in which the party gained the majority of the seats. Pierre Arcand succeeded Couillard in the Mont-Royal riding.