He represented Richelieu in the National Assembly of Quebec from 1994 to 2012, and was a cabinet minister in the governments of Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry.
[8] Simard supported electoral reform and proposed that future elections in Quebec be conducted under a system of compensatory proportional representation.
Simard was encouraged to run as a New Democratic Party candidate in the 1988 federal election, at a time when the NDP was seeking to build its support base in Quebec.
He was a prominent local member of the Société nationale des Québécois and opposed proposed changes to the province's Charter of the French Language.
[13] Simard was the first declared candidate in a by-election to succeed him, running on a platform of increased democratic consultation, budget cuts that would not affect municipal salaries, and reduced taxes.
[16] Simard was a PQ candidate in the 1989 provincial election, narrowly losing to Liberal Party cabinet minister Guy Rivard in the Montreal division of Rosemont.
"[18] As MNQ president, Simard argued that francophone Quebecers were unfairly singled out by Canadian federalists for having condoned racist and xenophobic behaviour in earlier times.
Soon after his appointment, Simard warned the Canadian government to consider the possibility of a violent reaction if it ever tried to partition the predominantly federalist areas from a future, sovereign Quebec.
[26] Simard also threatened a boycott of the 2001 Francophone Games in Ottawa and Hull, on the grounds that the federal government was excluding Quebec from the organizing committee.
[27] As minister of international relations, Simard represented Quebec in trade and diplomatic missions to France, China, Vietnam, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and Zimbabwe.
[29] In late November 1996, Simard criticized Charles Aznavour after the well-known troubadour sang some of his best-known songs in English during a concert in Ottawa.
[32] Echoing his statements from a decade earlier, he called for an increased settlement of immigrants into areas outside of Montreal to facilitate their integration to Quebec society.
[35] This controversy exposed divisions in the ranks of the PQ and is widely believed to have provoked Lucien Bouchard's resignation as premier shortly thereafter.
Simard issued his first report as treasury board president on 29 March 2001, indicating that government spending would increase by 3.1% in 2001-02 with three-quarters of the new revenues going to health and education.
[38] Later in 2001, he announced that Quebec would take nearly one billion dollars from its reserve fund to avoid going into deficit amid a serious North American economic downturn.
[40] Simard launched a major recruitment campaign in early 2001, seeking to fill 1,500 full-time and 5,000 part-time public service positions.
[44] He announced a $91 million program for reforming Quebec's secondary schools in January 2003, highlighted by increased tutoring, a focus on history and the French language as well as upgrades to the sciences, and new steps to target the provincial dropout rate.
[46] He was strongly critical of the right-wing Action démocratique du Québec's proposal to introduce a system of school vouchers to the province.
[51] Simard was strongly critical of the Charest government's cuts to economic development and the public service, as well as its move toward public-private partnerships.
[57] The PQ fell to a third-place finish in the 2007 general election, and Simard was again re-elected by a reduced margin over a strong challenge from an ADQ candidate.
[citation needed] The PQ returned to official opposition status in the 2008 election under Marois's leadership, and Sylvain was re-elected by an increased margin.
[60] In March 2009, he argued that the government could save four billion dollars by building two new university teaching hospitals in Montreal as conventional projects rather than as private-public partnerships.
[62] In early 2011, Pauline Marois said that she favoured extending Quebec's Charter of the French Language to restrict non-anglophone students from attending English-language CEGEPs.