Diane Marleau - Early Life and Career

Early Life and Career

Marleau was born Diane Lebal in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, one of three children raised by a single mother in a low-income household. She was a childhood friend of Marie-Paule Charette, who later became a Senator and president of the Liberal Party.

She studied Commerce at the University of Ottawa, but left after three years when she married fellow student Paul Marleau, with whom she had three children: Brigitte, Donald and Stéphane, and moved to Sudbury. She worked as the secretary to a medical doctor for five years, prior to the introduction of Medicare. She later said that this experience made her realize the importance of a publicly-funded health system, saying "I was the one who had to collect the bills. It gave me an understanding of what it means when people are obliged to pay to see a doctor."

Marleau returned to Laurentian University as a mature student, and completed a Bachelor's Degree in Economics (1976). She worked as an accountant, managed an office for a firm of chartered accountants (Thorne and Riddell and then with Collins, Barrow-Maheux Noiseux), and operated a restaurant she co-owned with her husband. She also served on the boards of Laurentian University and Laurentian Hospital. Marleau worked on Judy Erola's campaign in the 1980 federal election, and later credited Erola as a role model for her own career in public life.

Read more about this topic:  Diane Marleau

Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or career:

    Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.
    Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)

    Negro history must be studied, not only because it is the history of over 19 millions, but American life as a whole cannot be understood without knowing it.
    Dorothy Allen Conley (b. 1904)

    In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.
    Barbara Dale (b. 1940)