Perrin Beatty

Henry Perrin Beatty, PC (born June 1, 1950) is a corporate executive and former Canadian politician.

Perrin Beatty first won election to the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative at the age of 22 in the 1972 election.

He is a graduate of Upper Canada College in Toronto, Ontario, and of the University of Western Ontario in London.

In 1979, he became, at the time, the youngest person ever appointed to a Canadian Cabinet when Prime Minister Joe Clark made Beatty his minister of state for the Treasury Board in the short-lived government. Beatty returned to the opposition benches as a result of the defeat of the Clark government in the 1980 election.

With the Conservative victory in the 1984 election, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney made Beatty Minister of National Revenue and Minister responsible for Canada Post. He subsequently served as Solicitor General of Canada (1985 – 1986), Defence Minister (1986 – 1989), Minister of National Health and Welfare (1989 – 1991), and the now defunct position of Minister of Communications (1991 – 1993).

Despite long being touted as a future Tory leader, Beatty did not run in the 1993 Progressive Conservative leadership convention to succeed Mulroney. He was promoted to Secretary of State for External Affairs in the short-lived government of Mulroney's successor, Kim Campbell, but lost his seat in the 1993 election which returned only two Tory MPs.

In 1995, the Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed Beatty President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, a position he held until 1999 when he became president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, a business association that promotes the interests of Canadian industry and exporters. In August 2007, Beatty left the CME to become president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.

On August 28, 2008, it was announced that Beatty has been named as the chancellor of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) in Oshawa, Ontario. He also sits on the board of directors for the Canadian International Council and the advisory council of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.