Eric Kierans

Eric William Kierans, PC OC (February 2, 1914 – May 9, 2004) was a Canadian economist and politician.

Life and career

Born in Montreal, Kierans grew up in the working-class Saint-Henri neighbourhood of Montreal; his father worked at Canadian Car and Foundry and his mother came to Canada as a domestic. After serving as director of the school of commerce at McGill University and president of the Montreal Stock Exchange, Kierans entered provincial politics in 1963. He was appointed Minister of Revenue and then Minister of Health in the Quebec Liberal government of Premier Jean Lesage at the time of the Quiet Revolution.

Kierans became president of the Quebec Liberal Party and clashed with former cabinet minister and colleague René Lévesque in 1967, daring him to give up the idea of Quebec separatism or quit the Liberal Party. Lévesque later quit the Liberal Party and established the Mouvement Souveraineté-Association, which became Quebec's leading sovereigntist party as the Parti Québécois.