Parti conservateur du Québec

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The Parti conservateur du Québec (in English: Conservative Party of Quebec) was a political party in Quebec, Canada.

Contents

[edit] Origins

The party originated as the parti bleu which was formed around 1850 by the followers of Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine. The parti bleu opposed the anti-clericalism and radicalism of its rival, the parti rouge of Louis-Joseph Papineau.

The parti bleu supported the role of the clergy in Quebec society. Members of the parti bleu, led by George-Étienne Cartier from Canada East, joined with the followers of Sir John A. Macdonald in Canada West to form a coalition government with Cartier as co-premier from 1857 to 1862. It was out of this coalition that the Conservative Party was formed (then known as Liberal-Conservative), laying the basis for Confederation in 1867.

[edit] Post-Confederation

With Confederation and Quebec's entry as a province, what had been the parti bleu became the Quebec wing of Macdonald's Conservative Party. It formed the government in the province, with Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau as Quebec's first premier. Cartier acted as Macdonald's Quebec lieutenant in the federal House of Commons. The Conservatives dominated Quebec politics at both the federal and provincial level for the next 30 years. The Conservatives held power in Quebec City for 25 out of 30 years, providing eight of the province's ten premiers in that period.

However, the party became increasingly divided between a moderate wing and an Ultramontane wing of Catholic fundamentalists. As well, the party's links with the federal Conservatives harmed the party as the Tories in English Canada became increasingly identified as hostile to French Canadians and Quebec. The execution of Louis Riel in 1885 outraged French Canadians and hurt the Macdonald Conservatives at the polls.

After Macdonald's death in 1891, the coalition that formed the national Conservatives unravelled, particularly around the Manitoba Schools Question that pitted English-Canadian Protestants against French-Canadian Catholics. This issue essentially ended the possibility of a significant French-Canadian presence in western Canada.

The federal Conservatives lost the 1896 federal election, largely due to the collapse of their support in Quebec. The provincial Conservative government of Edmund James Flynn lost the 1897 Quebec election.

With the defeats of 1896 and 1897, the Conservatives became a minority party in Quebec at both levels of government. The Conservative Party of Quebec never formed another provincial government. The Quebec Liberal Party held power without interruption for the next 38 years.

[edit] Decline and re-emergence as Union Nationale

Conservative fortunes were further hurt by the Conscription Crisis of 1917 when the federal Conservative government of Robert Borden invoked conscription against the opposition of Quebec. This led to riots in the province.

In 1933, Maurice Duplessis became leader of the Quebec Conservatives. The next year, the ruling Liberal party split when a group of nationalist Liberals dissatisfied with the government of Louis-Alexandre Taschereau bolted from the party to form the Action libérale nationale or ALN. Duplessis wooed the dissident party and, two weeks before the 1935 election, the Conservatives and ALN formed a "Union Nationale" alliance to contest the election. The alliance was later formalized as a merger into a single political party, the Union Nationale. The UN took power in the 1936 election, and went on to dominate Quebec politics until Duplessis died in 1959.

A new Progressive Conservative Party was formed prior to the 1985 election. By this time the Union Nationale was no longer a contender for office and in terminal decline. Although the Progressive Conservatives nominated 48 candidates in the 1985 election and 12 candidates in the 1989 election, they failed to make a major impact in either election and subsequently disappeared from the political scene.

[edit] Leaders of the Parti conservateur du Québec

[edit] Election results

General election # of candidates # of seats won % of popular vote
1867 69 51 59.90%
1871 67 46 56.81%
1875 68 44 56.53%
1878 66 32 51.50%
1881 62 48 54.12%
1886 63 26 48.09%
1890 62 24 46.47%
1892 71 51 53.39%
1897 67 23 43.82%
1900 34 7 42.08%
1904 24 6 31.27%
1908 62 14 39.92%
1912 75 16 42.68%
1916 55 6 35.09%
1919 22 5 19.50%
1923 71 20 40.47%
1927 69 9 35.45%
1931 89 11 43.06%
1935 34 16 18.84%

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Major national, provincial, and territorial conservative parties in Canada (edit):
Forming the government:
Canada - Alberta - Prince Edward Island - Newfoundland and Labrador - Nova Scotia - Yukon
Forming the official opposition:
Manitoba - New Brunswick - Ontario - Saskatchewan Party - Action démocratique du Québec
Third parties represented in legislatures:
Alberta Alliance
Historical conservative parties:
Progressive Conservative Party of Canada - Canadian Alliance - Social Credit Party of Canada - British Columbia Conservative Party - British Columbia Social Credit Party - Social Credit Party of Alberta - Progressive Conservative Party of Saskatchewan - Conservative Party of Quebec - Northwest Territories Liberal-Conservative Party
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