On December 14, 1975, Roy teamed up with former Liberal minister Jérôme Choquette to form the Parti national populaire under Choquette's leadership. In August 1976, the PNP and the conservative Union Nationale party, led by Rodrigue Biron, announced the merger of their two parties, but the idea was abandoned by the Union Nationale one month later.
In the November 15, 1976 general elections, Fabien Roy was the only PNP candidate elected, while Choquette was defeated, placing third in his riding with 14.2% of the vote, behind the Liberal and Parti Québécois candidates. Choquette resigned as party leader on March 29, 1977,[2] and was succeeded by Roy.[3]
Roy was appointed leader of the federal Social Credit Party of Canada on March 30, 1979, and resigned his National Assembly seat on April 5, 1979.
The PNP ceased its activities in 1980, and its status as an authorized political party was revoked by the Director-General of Elections for Québec on 31 December 1983.[3]
Proposed merger with Union Nationale
On August 3, 1976, the UN leader in the National Assembly, Maurice Bellemare, leaked to the media that the UN and the PNP had been holding secret negotiations for several weeks to create a single regrouping of conservative, federalist forces. The negotiations were aimed at developing a new name, policy, party structures and financing. Bellemare had suggested "Union Nationale Populaire". Bellemare told reporters that Jérôme Choquette would serve as parliamentary leader of the new party, and UN party leader Rodrigue Biron would serve as party leader.[4]
Choquette's PNP movement had failed to catch on, and Biron's leadership of the UN had not been successful. Choquette was described by the Montreal Gazette as a “leader without a party”, while the UN was described as “a party without a leader”.[5]
The next day, the Montreal Gazette reported that Choquette would be named “interim leader”, responsible for developing the new party's policy and program, while Biron would be responsible for administrative and organizational issues. Officially, the two leaders would be considered equals, and each would continue to lead his own party until the new party's leadership convention, scheduled for October 1976, but it had become clear that Choquette had the support of Bellemare. Choquette was described as Quebec's third most popular political leader in a Montreal Gazette editorial[6] Bellemare was the UN's sole Member of the National Assembly. The party's $750,000 election fund was controlled by Mario Beaulieu, a Bellemare loyalist.[7] Bellemare was seen as using Choquette to push Biron out of the UN leadership without getting blood on his own hands.[5]
A dispute between Biron and Choquette emerged quickly. Biron favoured eliminating Bill 22, the language law that established French as the sole official language of Quebec, and required that children whose parents were not educated in English be educated in French.[7] Choquette, on the other hand, had quit the Liberal Cabinet because he wanted stricter enforcement of the education rules. The dispute erupted, however, when Choquette changed his position, and spoke out in favour of allowing parents to have the choice of language of instruction, saying that it would be impossible to regulate parents’ choices. Biron, who favoured applying the rule only to non-Anglophone immigrants, said that Choquette “went too far” and that he would seek a revision to Choquette's statement. Biron went further, and stated that as he had been elected leader of the UN “with a great majority”, he would continue in that role into the election and past it and that the new party would be called the Union Nationale, indicating that the PNP would be absorbed by the UN, rather than a merger creating a new party.[8]
The merger attempt was called off in September 1976.
1976 election
The 1976 election caught the PNP by surprise, and it lacked local organization, money and a platform. The party quickly assembled a mainstream platform by drawing heavily from those of other parties, especially the Union Nationale. Choquette presented the party as being a liberal party: “The present government has forgotten the principles of liberalism for which it stands. The new party that I represent becomes the true liberal party, not in name, but in deeds.”[9]
Of the PNP's candidates, only two won more than 1,000 votes: Fabien Roy who was re-elected with 17,600 (69% of the total) in Beauce-Sud, and Choquette, who won only 3,726 votes (14% of the total) in his former riding of Outremont.
The Social Credit Party of Canada, colloquially known as the Socreds, was a populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform. It was the federal wing of the Canadian social credit movement.
The 1973 Quebec general election was held on October 29, 1973 to elect members to National Assembly of Quebec, Canada. The incumbent Quebec Liberal Party, led by Premier Robert Bourassa, won re-election, defeating the Parti Québécois, led by René Lévesque, and the Union Nationale (UN).
Historically in Quebec, Canada, there were a number of political parties that were part of the Canadian social credit movement. There were various parties at different times with different names at the provincial level, all broadly following the social credit philosophy; at various times they had varying degrees of affiliation with the Social Credit Party of Canada at the federal level.
The Parti crédit social uni was a provincial political party in the Canadian province of Quebec. It existed on two occasions, from 1969 to around 1971 and from 1979 to 1994. The party's leader in both periods was Jean-Paul Poulin. The PCSU was not formally aligned with the Social Credit Party of Canada.
David Réal Caouette was a Canadian politician from Quebec. He was a member of Parliament (MP) and leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada and founder of the Ralliement des créditistes. Outside politics he worked as a car dealer.
Ralliement national (RN) was a separatist and right-wing populist provincial political party that advocated the political independence of Quebec from Canada in the 1960s.
The Ralliement créditiste du Québec was a provincial political party in Quebec, Canada that operated from 1970 to 1978. It promoted social credit theories of monetary reform, and acted as an outlet for the expression of rural discontent. It was a successor to an earlier social credit party in Quebec, the Union des électeurs which ran candidates in the 1940s.
Les Démocrates was a provincial political party in Quebec, Canada, founded by former Ralliement créditiste du Québec leader Camil Samson and former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada federal cabinet minister Pierre Sévigny on November 18, 1978. It was renamed the Parti démocrate créditiste on January 1, 1980, a reference to the social credit theory of monetary economics. Samson joined the Liberal Party of Quebec on September 2, 1980. Sévigny remained as party leader and initially campaigned prior to the 1981 Quebec election but he did not stand as a candidate himself and the party was unable to field a slate of 10 candidates and dissolved prior to the election.
Rodrigue Biron is a politician in Quebec, Canada. He was leader of the Union Nationale political party from 1976 to 1980, when he joined the Parti Québécois (PQ). He served as Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism in the PQ government.
Fabien Roy is a former Canadian politician who was active in Quebec in the 1970s. Roy was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec and the House of Commons of Canada, and advocated social credit theories of monetary reform.
Jérôme Choquette was a lawyer and politician in Quebec, Canada. Choquette ran a private law practice, representing various claimants in a wide range of cases from his office on Avenue du Parc, downtown Montreal.
Camil Samson was a politician in Quebec, Canada, Member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA), and leader of the Ralliement créditiste du Québec and other political parties.
The Union nationale was a conservative and nationalist provincial political party in Quebec, Canada, that identified with Québécois autonomism. It was created during the Great Depression and held power in Quebec from 1936 to 1939, and from 1944 to 1960 and from 1966 to 1970. The party was founded by Maurice Duplessis, who led it until his death in 1959.
Maurice Bellemare, was a politician in Quebec, Canada. He was known as Le Vieux Lion de la Politique Québécoise because of his colourful style and his many years of public office. Bellemare was one of the last survivors of the Union Nationale party.
Lotbinière is a former provincial electoral district in the Centre-du-Québec and Chaudière-Appalaches regions of Quebec, Canada. As of its final election, it included the municipalities of Lotbinière, Saint-Flavien, Lemieux, Laurierville, Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, Sainte-Croix and Laurier-Station.
Beauce was a former provincial electoral district in the Chaudière-Appalaches and Estrie regions of Quebec, Canada. It elected members to the National Assembly of Quebec.
Yvon Brochu was a politician in Quebec, Canada, and a Member of the National Assembly of Quebec (MNA).
Jean-Paul Poulin was a politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. He was active in the Canadian social credit movement and led the Parti crédit social uni through four general elections at the provincial level.
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