[3] Marleau was born Diane Paulette Lebel[4] in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, one of three children raised by a single mother in a low-income household.
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.
The Progressive Conservative Party under Brian Mulroney won a majority government in this election, and Marleau served in the Official Opposition as critic for Energy, Mines and Resources.
[17] Marleau criticized Bank of Canada governor John Crow during this period, arguing that his high interest rate policy was driving the economy into a recession.
Some have speculated that Chrétien originally planned to appoint Marleau as Minister of National Revenue, and assigned her to Health as a late replacement for Sheila Copps and/or Hedy Fry.
As Health Minister, she once said that she opposed user fees on the grounds that they discourage poor people from seeking medical treatment until the advanced stages of illness.
[27] Marleau later indicated that her standoff with Alberta was opposed by some in the Prime Minister's Office, who worried about encroaching on a provincial jurisdiction during the period of the 1995 Quebec referendum.
[29] After Marleau left the Health portfolio, the Chrétien government allowed Alberta doctors to work in both the public and private sectors by selling services not deemed "medically necessary".
[30] The Chrétien government's 1995 austerity budget reduced transfer payments to the provinces, and provided lump-sum financing for health and social spending in place of separate budgetary envelopes.
[34] In June 1994, committee chair Roger Simmons issued a report indicating that Marleau's proposal was viable, but should be deferred pending research as to whether it would actually reduce smoking levels.
[35] A May 1995 report found no conclusive proof that plain packaging would reduce smoking, but suggested it would be effective in deterring children from starting the habit.
[36] Marleau's plans suffered a setback later in 1995, when the Supreme Court of Canada unexpectedly struck down a law against tobacco advertising that had been passed by the Mulroney government in 1988.
[43] Marleau received a report on new reproductive technologies shortly after her appointment as Health Minister, and welcomed its primary thesis that conception and child-bearing should not become for-profit industries.
[52] A deal between the federal government and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs was delayed in early 1995, as the result of disagreements on whether First Nations health care was a treaty right.
[58] Marleau later acknowledged that she was regarded as a weak minister after failing to stop the tobacco tax cut, but defended her overall performance by saying that she consistently stood up for public health care against powerful opposition.
[61] Marleau did not endorse Radwanski's recommendation that Canada Post should concentrate solely on delivering regular mail, and also disagreed with his call for the government to sell Purolator Courier.
[63] In November 1996, Marleau and Jean Chrétien sought and received $34 million from the Treasury Board of Canada for sponsorship spending earmarked toward national unity.
[64] Marleau subsequently testified before a public inquiry that she did not personally oversee the program, and that she had declined on procedural grounds to receive direct reports from sponsorship head Chuck Guité.
[65] Marleau privatized the Canada Communications Group's printing, warehousing and distribution operations in 1996, but took steps to ensure that jobs, wage levels and benefits would be protected after the sale.
[66] She later warned the Ontario provincial government of Mike Harris against its plans to download social housing to the municipalities, arguing that any such move would require Ottawa's concurrence.
[69] One of her last major acts as Public Works Minister was to officially open Confederation Bridge, a permanent land link between Prince Edward Island and the rest of Canada.
[70] Reflecting on Marleau's tenure as Public Works Minister in 2002, journalist Edward Greenspon wrote that she did not fit the profile of the "pork barrel" politician usually assigned to the portfolio and that her term in office was necessarily brief.
[78] She pledged $500,000 to promoting dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians in June 1998,[79] and promised $100 million over three to four years for Central American rebuilding efforts following the devastation of Hurricane Mitch.
[81] Marleau gave permission for Canadian organizations to send direct famine relief to North Korea in 1997, during a period of widespread starvation in that country.
[82] In April 1998, Marleau said that Canada would consider restoring foreign aid to Burma after ten years of sanctions for human rights abuses.
[85] In 2000, she argued that Chrétien was not doing enough to protect medicare and called on the government to block Alberta's plans to allow public funding for private, for-profit clinics.
[85] Prior to the 2000 federal election, Marleau aligned herself with a group of Liberal MPs who supported Paul Martin's ambition to succeed Chrétien as party leader.
She later said that comments made by Sudbury Member of Provincial Parliament Rick Bartolucci shortly before election day played a "crucial" role in her defeat.
Marleau was a supporter of the proposed coalition, which dissolved when Stephen Harper prorogued parliament and Michael Ignatieff replaced Dion as Liberal leader.
[3] Following her death, statements of tribute were issued by a variety of political figures in the Sudbury area, including former mayor and former Nickel Belt MP John Rodriguez, incumbent mayor Marianne Matichuk, incumbent Sudbury MP Glenn Thibeault and provincial MPPs Rick Bartolucci and France Gélinas,[4] as well as by Paul Martin,[101] Bob Rae, Leona Aglukkaq and Dwight Duncan.