Daniel Fournier

Daniel Fournier is a businessperson and politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. Known as a successful real estate investor, he has been the president of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec's real estate group since June 2010. He has also run for the Canadian House of Commons and written on Canadian federalism.

Early life and education
Fournier was born in Pierrefonds, a lower middle class community that was amalgamated into the City of Montreal in 2002. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Jurisprudence from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. While studying at Oxford, he took a term off to play for the Ottawa Rough Riders football team. He returned to Canada after graduating and became a successful figure in Montreal's real estate sector.

Private career
During the 1980s, Fournier was prominent among a group of young French Canadian entrepreneurs who challenged the city's traditional anglophone economic dominance. His group owned both the Ogilvy store and the Ritz-Carlton Montreal in this period. He later became president of the firm Capital and the vice-president of Candarel.

He was named executive vice-president and chief investment officer of SITQ, which is primarily owned by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, in July 2008. He left after one year, but returned in June 2010 as executive vice-president and president of the Caisse's real estate group.

Political career
Fournier was a member of the Liberal Party of Canada in 1990, although he was not a supporter of party leader Jean Chrétien. He later joined the Conservatives, arguing that he wanted to promote a more decentralized version of Canadian federalism. He added that he was not a social conservative and did not believe the government should legislate personal morality.

Before running for office, Fournier discussed his party's direction and future prospects with several prominent Conservatives across Canada, including Peter Lougheed, John Tory, Preston Manning, Tony Clement, Pat Binns, and Jim Dinning. He was considered a star candidate for his party in the 2006 election and was featured in its television advertisements. He received 5,168 votes (12.73%), finishing fourth against incumbent Liberal Party cabinet minister Jean Lapierre.

The Conservative Party formed a minority government after the election, and new prime minister Stephen Harper intended to appoint Fournier to the Senate of Canada and the Canadian cabinet, where he would have been a regional representative for Montreal. Fournier declined the offer, however, and Harper appointed Michael Fortier in his place.

In 2007, Fournier contributed a chapter to Reconquerir le Canada: Un nouveau projet pour la nation quebecoise, a book defending Canadian federalism within Quebec.

Electoral record
Source: Official Results, Elections Canada and Financial Returns, Elections Canada.