Claude Castonguay, the ‘Father of Medicare,’ dies at 91, according to media reports

After declining the co-chairmanship of the Commission on the Political and Constitutional Future of Quebec, which would become the Bélanger-Campeau Commission, arguing such a commission should only be chaired by one person and not two, he returned to politics by becoming a Progressive Conservative senator in 1990.

He remained in the Senate for only two years, but did not leave public life. In 1994, Parizeau named him to preside over a committee of experts on medical insurance. And in 2008, somewhat renouncing his former principles, he chaired a committee that recommended the termination of free health care.

He was appointed Officer of the Order of Quebec in 1991, then Grand Officer in 2014.

Castonguay remained active throughout his life, participating in debates that interested him. However, perhaps sensing the end was coming, he bid farewell on Nov. 1 to the readers of his columns on the La Presse website.

“It is therefore with sadness and with a heavy heart that I must stop writing and I express my gratitude to all those who have encouraged me to continue. I thank them with all my heart,” he wrote.