Born in
Montreal,
Quebec, Fox was a
lawyer by training. He was first elected to the
House of Commons of Canada in the
1972 election as a
Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for the
riding of
Argenteuil—Deux-Montagnes, Quebec. He was re-elected in the
1974 election from the same constituency. In the
1979 and
1980 elections, he was returned as MP for
Blainville—Deux-Montagnes before being defeated in that riding in the
1984 election. Fox was appointed to the Cabinet of Prime Minister
Pierre Trudeau in 1976 when he became
Solicitor General of Canada. Bilingual, Fox was seen as an up-and-comer in the Liberal cabinet, and even a potential party leader. However, he was forced to resign on January 27, 1978, when it became known that he had forged the signature of his lover's husband on a form granting permission for her to have an
abortion. Although he was married at the time of the scandal, he subsequently divorced his wife (m. 1965),
Joan Pennefather. He later married a subsequent lover, Vivian Case (b. 1950). He was until his death married (~1979) to Case, who is a visual artist, and had three children. Fox returned to Cabinet after the
1980 election when Trudeau appointed him to the position of
Secretary of State for Canada and
Minister of Communications. He then served as
Minister of International Trade in 1984 in the short-lived government of Trudeau's successor,
John Turner. With the defeat of the Turner government and the loss of his own seat, Fox returned to the private sector. He became a lobbyist and a member of Government Consultants International, a consulting firm, with
Frank Moores,
Gary Ouellet, and
Gerald Doucet. Subsequently, he was a senior partner in the law firm of Martineau Walker, and later as an executive at Rogers
AT&T Wireless. In 2003, Fox became a senior member of Paul Martin's transition team as he prepared to succeed
Jean Chrétien as prime minister. In 2004, Fox became Martin's
principal secretary, but it was announced on August 18 that he would be leaving the position on October 1 to return to private life. After resigning, Fox served as the president of former cabinet minister
Liza Frulla's riding. He was an early prominent supporter of former Liberal leader
Michael Ignatieff. Fox was appointed to the Senate on Martin's recommendation on August 29, 2005, and announced his resignation on November 30, 2011, effective December 2. Fox died on September 24, 2024, at the age of 84. ==References==