Parti Québécois

Template:Infobox Canada Political Party

The Parti Québécois or PQ is a political party that advocates national sovereignty for Quebec from Canada, as well as social democratic policies and has traditionally had support from the labour movement though unlike other social democratic parties it has no formal ties with labour. Members and supporters of the PQ are sometimes called Péquistes (pronounced /peˈkist/ -- a word derived from the French pronunciation of the party's initials).

History

The PQ is the result of the 1968 merger between René Lévesque's Mouvement souveraineté-association 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. The party's leader, René Lévesque, became the Premier of Quebec. This was cause for celebration among many French-speaking Quebecers, but resulted in an acceleration of the migration of the province's anglophone population and related economic activity towards Toronto.

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, insofar as this self-determination did not affect the territorial integrity of Quebec. 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 prominent 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. It had a very positive impact in allowing the advancement of francophones towards management roles, until then largely out of their reach--despite the fact that 85% of the population spoke French and most of them did not understand English, the language of management was English in most medium and large businesses. Critics, both francophone and anglophone, have however criticized the charter for restraining citizens' linguistic school choice, as it forbids immigrants and Quebecers of French descent from attending English-language schools. The party was re-elected in the 1981 election, but defeated by the Liberals in the 1985 election.

The Parti Québécois initiated the 1980 Quebec referendum seeking a mandate to begin negotiation for independence. It was rejected by 60 per cent of voters. With the failure of the Charlottetown Accord and the Meech Lake 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 final count showed sovereignty was supported by...49.6% of voters. On the night of the defeat, an emotionally drained Premier Jacques Parizeau stated that the loss was caused by "money and the ethnic vote" as well as by the divided votes amongst francophones. Later Parizeau resigned the next day (as he is alleged to have planned beforehand in case of a defeat). Less than 10 years later he was proven right on the first part of his statement: a 2004 political crisis and inquiry exposed that the "no" camp had violated Quebec law, using corruption to spend millions of dollars more than legally sanctioned in order to unethically defeat the sovereignty vote. This crisis led to the defeat of the Liberal party in the 2006 Federal election.

Lucien Bouchard, a former member of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's 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 succeeded to balance the provincial budget faster than anyone had expected, a feat achieved by only a couple of the ten Canadian provinces at that point, by reducing government spending, including social programs. The PQ won another term in the 1998 election. 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. [1]

Louise Harel had been chosen to replace him until a new leader, André Boisclair, was elected November 15, 2005, through the party's 2005 leadership election.

Relationship with the Bloc

The Bloc Québécois is a political party at the federal Canadian level that was founded in 1990 by future PQ leader Lucien Bouchard. It holds close ties to the Parti Québécois, and shares its two principal objectives: sovereignty and social democracy. The two parties frequently share political candidates, and support each other during election campaigns.

They have a similar membership and voter base. Prominent members of either party often attend and speak at both organizations' public events. The current Bloc leader, Gilles Duceppe, is also the son of Jean Duceppe, a famous Quebec actor who helped found the PQ. Jean Duceppe also helped found the New Democratic Party branch in Quebec, which later separated from the federal NDP and merged into the Union des forces progressistes (UFP), which gathered 1.0% of the vote during the 2004 election, twice the number of the closest fourth party (the Bloc Pot, with 0.5% of vote turnout in 2004).

Logo

The distinctive party symbol was designed in 1968 by painter and poet Roland Giguère. [2] It consists of a stylised letter Q, represented by a blue circle broken by a red arrow. The creator meant it as an allegory of the Parti Québécois breaking the circle of colonialism and opening Quebec upon the world and the future. [3] The creator represented the second letter of the two-letter acronym only, an idiosyncratic design choice. The letter Q, relatively rare and therefore often used in Quebec acronyms and designs (see the Hydro-Québec logo, also an example of a second letter design), sends back of course to the first letter of Quebec and the word "Québécois" from the party's name.

Compared to organisations like the Parti libéral du Québec, which completely changed its logo oftentimes, the PQ has significantly modified its own very little during its history, once making the circle and arrow slightly thicker, and placing the tip of the latter at the center of the circle. The original saw it span the whole diameter (see original logo). When placed upon a blue background instead of a white one, the circle is commonly turned to white, the single main design variation currently observed.

Slogans

1970: OUI - Yes
1973: J'ai le goût du Québec - I have the taste for Quebec
1976: On a besoin d'un vrai gouvernement - We need a real government [won power]
1981: Faut rester forts au Québec - We must remain strong in Quebec [remained in power]
1985: Le Québec avec Johnson - Quebec with Johnson
1989: Je prends le parti du Québec - I'm taking the party of Quebec / I'm choosing Quebec (double meaning)
1994: L'autre façon de gouverner - The other way of governing [won power]
1998: J'ai confiance - I have confidence (I trust) [remained in power]
2003: Restons forts - Let us remain strong

Party leaders

René Lévesque (1968-1985) (premier 1976-1985)
Pierre-Marc Johnson (1985-1987) (premier 1985)
Jacques Parizeau (1987-1996) (premier 1994-1996)
Lucien Bouchard (1996-2001) (premier 1996-2001)
Bernard Landry (2001-2005) (premier 2001-2003)
Louise Harel (2005) (interim)
Andre Boisclair (2005 - Current)

Leadership elections

Election results

General election	# of candidates	# of seats won	% of popular vote
1970	108	7	23.06%
1973	110	6	30.22%
1976	110	71	41.37%
1981	122	80	49.26%
1985	122	26	38.69%
1989	125	29	40.16%
1994	125	77	44.75%
1998	124	76	42.87%
2003	125	45	33.24%

Reference

Godin, Pierre. René Lévesque, Héros malgré lui, Éditions Boréal, 1997. ISBN 2-89052-8333-2

External links