Perrin Beatty
|
|
Henry Perrin Beatty (born June 1, 1950) is a corporate executive and former Canadian politician.
Perrin Beatty first won election to the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative at the age of 22 in the 1972 election.
In 1979, he became, at the time, the youngest person ever appointed to a Canadian Cabinet when Prime Minister Joe Clark made Beatty his minister of state for the Treasury Board in his short-lived government. Beatty returned to the opposition benches as a result of the defeat of the Clark governemnt in the 1980 election.
With the Conservative victory in the 1984 election, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney made Beatty Minister of National Revenue. He subsequently served as Solicitor General of Canada (1985 - 1986), Defence Minister (1986 - 1989), Minister of National Health and Welfare (1989 - 1991), and the now defunct position of Minister of Communications (1991 - 1993).
Despite long being touted as a future Tory leader, Beatty did not run in the 1993 Progressive Conservative leadership convention to succeed Mulroney. He was promoted to Secretary of State for External Affairs in the short-lived government of Mulroney's successor, Kim Campbell, but lost his seat in the 1993 election that returned only two Tory MPs.
In 1995, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed Beatty President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a position he held until 1999 when he became president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, an industry association that promotes the interests of private industry.
He has been married to his wife, Joan, since 1975. They have two children, Alex Beatty and Sarah Ogston.