He was a prominent city councillor in Montreal from 1982 to 1994, a Parti Québécois member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 2000, and a cabinet minister in the government of Lucien Bouchard.
The Civic Party won a majority government on council in this election, and Perreault served in opposition for the next four years, achieving prominence as the MCM's critic on economic issues.
Perreault was easily re-elected in Laurier and, following the election, was named as vice-chair of the Montreal executive committee (i.e., the municipal cabinet) with responsibility for economic development and administrative reform.
[15] In 1988, he wrote a public letter calling for municipalities in Laval and the South Shore to contribute more to Montreal's transit system, arguing that the service was used by many of residents of these communities.
[23] In December 1990, Perreault announced that the MUCTC would remove the government of Canada's English/French bilingual advertisements from bus and subway lines to ensure compliance with Quebec's French-only sign laws.
[31] In late 1996, Perreault reached an interim agreement with representatives of the government of Canada and the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake concerning policing services in the divided community.
[32] Perreault announced an independent inquiry into the state of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) in June 1996, following widespread allegations of corruption and misconduct in the force.
[34] Bonin stood down in October 1996, citing acrimonious working conditions, and Perreault subsequently launched a revised, wide-ranging public inquiry led by retired justice Lawrence Poitras.
[36] When it was released three years later, Poitras's report accused the SQ of abusing its powers of arrest, being more concerned with protecting its image than investigating misconduct, and having an "unhealthy air of solidarity, expressed through the law of silence and retaliations" against dissident officers.
[37] Perreault was public security minister at the time of a high-profile rivalry between two biker gangs in Quebec, the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine.
In early 1997, he announced that the Bouchard government was planning a new series of measures to target gang violence, including stricter rules for liquor-permit renewals and increased expropriation powers for municipalities.
[40] Perreault announced a few weeks later that the Quebec government would contribute $160 million to double the size of the Palais des congrès de Montréal, and a modified version of this plan was approved in September 1998.
[41] In early 1998, Perreault helped negotiate an agreement for the provincial government to reduce Montreal's deficit by taking part ownership of some municipal buildings.
[43] Perreault proposed a transit corporation merger between the Montreal Urban Community, Laval, and the South Shore in 1998, arguing that it would save fifty million dollars per year.
[49] In March 1999, Perreault said that Quebec would not provide individual compensation to the Duplessis Orphans who had been abused several decades earlier at the Mount Cashel Orphanage.
"[51] Perreault and treasury board president Jacques Léonard announced a new hiring campaign for the civil service in early 1999, indicating that they would seek more recruits from Quebec's minority communities.
[52] Perreault was later able to announce that Quebec had fulfilled its targets for minority representation in summer positions, but critics charged that the numbers for full-time civil service jobs remained unacceptably low.
[59] He added that he had entered provincial politics to achieve Quebec independence and would not have resigned if the Bouchard government had set a clear timeline for a new referendum on sovereignty.