From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
David Michael Collenette (born June 24 1946 in London) was a Canadian politician representing the Liberal Party of Canada from 1974 to 2004. Collenette was first elected in the York East riding of Toronto to the House of Commons on July 8 1974 under the Pierre Elliott Trudeau cabinet.
He was defeated twice in his career, once in Tory's upset victory under Joe Clark in 1979 and again in Brian Mulroney's first election in 1984. He returned to politics nine years later and entered the Jean Chretien cabinet. He first was Minister of Veterans Affairs and Minister of National Defence. During this period he was at the centre of the controversy over the Somalia Affair, and was especially challenged on the government's decision to curtail the inquiry into the affair. Because of this, and another incident where he intervened with a judge on behalf of a constituent, he resigned from cabinet.
After only a few months on the back benches he returned to cabinet as Minister of Transport. In this portfolio his most important decisions were those that lead to the merging of Canadian Airlines and Air Canada.
Collonette was one of Jean Chretien's staunchest loyalists in cabinet and he was not expected to have a future in politics under new Liberal leader Paul Martin. He was not appointed to Martin's cabinet announced in December 2003, and on January 29, 2004 he announced his retirement from politics. He is expected to accept a position in the private sector.
