The Honourable Robert René de Cotret (February 20 1944 - July 9 1999) was a Canadian politician.
An economist and corporate executive, de Cotret was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons as the Progressive Conservative MP for
Ottawa Centre making him one of the few francophone MPs in the Tory caucus.
Despite the Tory victory in the 1979 Canadian election, de Cotret lost his seat. In need of French-Canadian Cabinet ministers, Prime Minister Joe Clark appointed de Cotret to the Canadian Senate and to Cabinet as Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce in Clark's minority government. When the government was defeated in a motion of non-confidence, a new election was called for February 18 1980. De Cotret resigned his Senate seat in order to run for a seat in the House of Commons in the riding of Berthier—Maskinongé but was defeated in the 1980 Canadian election along with the Clark government.
De Cotret ran again in the 1984 Canadian election and this time was elected along with a Progressive Conservative majority government led by Brian Mulroney who appointed de Cotret to Cabinet as President of the Treasury Board. In 1987, de Cotret became Minister of Regional Industrial Expansion before reassuming the Treasury Board portfolio in 1989. In 1990, he became Minister of the Environment and then Secretary of State for Canada in 1991. De Cotret chose not to run for re-election and retired from Cabinet in January 1993 and did not run in the 1993 Canadian election.
