Political Parties

Provincial Parties: The Parti Québécois

History

The Parti Québécois, or PQ, is the result of the 1968 merger between the Mouvement souveraineté-association (MSA) and the Ralliement national. Following the creation of the PQ, the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale held a general assembly that voted to dissolve the RIN. Its former members were invited to join the new Parti Québécois.

The PQ's primary goals were and still are to obtain the political, economic and social independence for the province of Quebec. In the 1976 provincial election, the Parti Québécois was elected to form the government of Quebec. This was cause for celebration among many French-speaking Quebecers, but resulted in panic and a mass exodus among many of the province's anglophones, minorities and business people.

The first PQ government was known as the "republic of teachers" because of the large number of PQ Members of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNAs) who taught at the university level. The PQ was the first government to recognize the rights of Aboriginal peoples to self-determination. The PQ passed laws on public consultations and the financing of political parties, which insured equal financing of political parties and limited contributions by individuals to $3000. However, the most important legacy of the PQ is the Charter of the French Language (the so-called Bill 101), a framework law which defines the linguistic primacy of French and seeks to make French the common public language of Quebec. Critics, both francophone and anglophone, have, however, criticized the charter for restricting citizens' linguistic school choice, as it forbids immigrants and Quebecers of French descent from attending English-language schools funded by the state (private schools have always been an option open to everybody). The party was re-elected in the 1981 election, but defeated by the Liberals in the 1985 and 1989 elections. The PQ was re-elected to form the government in the 1994 general election.

The Parti Québécois has initiated two referendums to begin negotiation for independence. The 1980 Quebec referendum, seeking a mandate to begin negotiation for independence, was rejected by 60 per cent of voters. With the failure of the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord,two packages of proposed amendments to the Canadian constitution, the question of Quebec's status remained unresolved, and the PQ called the 1995 Quebec referendum proposing negotiations on sovereignty. After leading all night, the motion to decide whether Quebec should secede from Canada was defeated by an extremely small margin: 50.58% "No" to 49.42% "Yes". On the night of the defeat, PQ Premier Jacques Parizeau stated that the loss was caused by "money and the ethnic vote" as well as by the divided votes amongst francophones. Parizeau resigned the next day.

Lucien Bouchard, a former member of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative Cabinet and later founder of the Bloc Québécois, a sovereigntist party at the federal level, succeeded Parizeau as PQ leader, but chose not to call another referendum due to the absence of "winning conditions". Bouchard's government then engaged in massive cuts in social programs in order to balance the provincial budget. The PQ won another term in the 1998 election, and continued with this program. Bouchard resigned in 2001, and was succeeded as PQ leader and Quebec Premier by Bernard Landry, a former PQ Finance minister. Under Landry's leadership, the party lost the 2003 election to Jean Charest's Quebec Liberal Party.

Summer and fall 2004 were difficult for Bernard Landry's leadership which was being contested. A vote was held during the party's June 2005 convention to determine whether Landry continues to have the confidence of the party membership. Landry said he wanted at least 80% of approval and after gaining 76,2% approval on the confidence vote from party membership on June 4, 2005, Bernard Landry announced his intention to resign.

Louise Harel was named the party's interim leader until a new leader could be elected at the leadership convention on 15 November 2005. There were 8 candidates running for the party leadership in what was the first real leadership race in the party's history. André Boisclair emerged the winner after a fairly divisive campaign, winning on the first ballot with 53.7% support.

At the time of Boisclair's election, the PQ was as much as 20 percent ahead of the Liberals in opinion polls. However, in the 2007 provincial election, the party fell to 36 seats, finishing behind the Liberals and the Action démocratique du Québec in number of seats and the popular vote; this was the first time since 1973 that the party did not form the government or Official Opposition. The party's poor showing was largely blamed on the party's commitment to holding a referendum on sovereignty within the first year of its mandate.

On May 8, 2007, Boisclair announced his resignation as leader of the PQ, paving the way for a leadership race and convention. Current Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe was the first to announce his intention to run for party leadership, on May 11, 2007. In a surprise move, he withdrew the next day. Pauline Marois also announced on May 11 that she would be running. Marois was the only declared candidate and was acclaimed leader on June 26, 2007. Marois did not have a seat in the provincial assembly, but was elected in a by-election on September 24, 2007.

Leader of the Parti Québécois

Immediately after being named the new leader of the party, Marois conducted a major shuffle of the shadow cabinet. François Gendron was named the new house leader, replacing Diane Lemieux. Lemieux was offered by Marois the position of caucus chair, but refused and indicated her intention to resign her seat of Bourget. One of her more controversial moves, at least within the party itself, was her decision to put on hold indefinitely the holding of another referendum on sovereignty.

Instead, she focused on economic issues such as proposing a strategic plan for helping the forestry sector, which has been hard hit in recent years by the closure of several mills in western and central Quebec. Measures proposed included an increase in protected forest space, an increase of productivity by developing the second and third transformation of wood and incentives to encourage the usage of wood from Quebec for construction projects.

In November 2007, Opposition leader Mario Dumont, whose party supported the elimination of school boards, proposed a motion to topple the government in the wake of poor voting turnouts during the school board elections on November 4, 2007. The PQ strongly rejected the motion along with the Liberals citing that it was a lack of judgment made by the ADQ leader. Marois added that she was open for a debate on the structural bases of the school boards.

In October 2007, Marois proposed Bill 195, the Quebec Identity Act, which included a requirement that immigrants must learn French in order to obtain rights, including a putative Quebec citizenship and the right to run in elections at all levels. The bill also proposed the fundamental values of Quebec should be taken into account in a future constitution, including equality between sexes and the predominance of French. The idea was met with criticism amongst various minority groups. The Quebec Liberal Party also dismissed some of the measures as divisive and harmful. House Leader Jean-Marc Fournier also made a parallel between the proposed bill and Jacques Parizeau's "Money and the ethnic vote" speech following the 1995 referendum, while Cabinet Minister Benoit Pelletier added that it would violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Many current and past members of the Parti Québécois also rejected this proposal, including Bernard Landry.

Outside of Quebec, several newspapers described the bill as racist. Don Martin, columnist for the National Post, wrote that the population should try to stop the racism taking place in Quebec. However, while the vast majority of non-francophones are opposed, it was supported by a bare majority of francophones. However, the Liberals and the ADQ stated that they would defeat Bill 195.

In April 2008, Marois proposed a major rewrite of Bill 101, the French Language Charter in light of concerns of a purported decline of French language in the province particularly in the Montreal region. Her proposals included more French courses in elementary and secondary schools, the obligation for new arrivals of learning French and specific measures for some businesses, particularly small ones as well as more power for the Office québécois de la langue française.

2008 Election

In the December 2008 general election, the Parti Québécois finished a strong second to the Liberals, winning 51 seats to the Liberals 66.

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Related Links

• Official Website of the Parti Québécois (mostly in French)