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The 'Parti Québécois [PQ]' (translation: ''Quebec Party'') is a political party that advocates national sovereignty for the Canadian province of Quebec and secession from Canada, as well as social democratic policies and has traditionally had support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social democratic parties, it has no formal ties with the labour movement or labour unions. Members and supporters of the PQ are called "péquistes" (pronounced — a word derived from the French pronunciation of the party's initials).

Contents

History

Relationship with the Bloc Québécois

Logo

Slogans

Party leaders

Leadership elections

Election results

References

Further reading

See also

External links

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.
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 provided cause for celebration among many French-speaking Quebecers, while it resulted in an acceleration of the migration of the province's anglophone population and related economic activity toward Toronto.
The first PQ government was known as the "republic of teachers" because of the large number of scholars who served as cabinet members. 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 Bill 101), a framework law which defines the linguistic primacy of French and seeks to make French the common public language of Quebec. It allowed 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 in November 1984 it experienced the most severe internal crisis of its existence. The incident resulted in the resignation of Premier René Lévesque. In September 1985, a party leadership election chose Pierre Marc Johnson as his successor.
The PQ was 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. Parizeau resigned the next day (as he is alleged to have planned beforehand in case of a defeat).
Lucien Bouchard, a former member of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's Cabinet and later founder of the Bloc Québécois, a sovereignist 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 balanced the provincial budget — a feat achieved in Canada only by the federal government and a few of the ten Canadian provinces at that point — by reducing government spending, including social programs. The PQ won another term in the 1998 election, despite receiving fewer votes than the Quebec Liberal Party of Jean Charest. 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 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, 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. At the time of Boisclair's election, the PQ was as much as 20 percent ahead of the Liberals in opinion polls^[2].
However, in the 2007 provincial election, the party fell to 36 seats and behind the Action démocratique du Québec in number of seats and the popular vote: this is the first time since 1973 that the party did not form the government or Official Opposition. Boisclair said that the voters clearly did not support a strategy of a rapid referendum in the first mandate of a PQ government (This is shown by recent polls which demonstrate most Quebecers are not ready for another separation referendum). Instead of a policy convention following the election, the party will hold a presidents' council. As well, the usual post-election leadership convention may be postponed until 2008. The party caucus in the provincial legislative assembly was said to have supported Boisclair continuing as leader.
On May 8, 2007, Boisclair announced his resignation as leader of the PQ^[3]. This was effective immediately, although Boisclair confirmed he would remain within the PQ caucus for the time being. He was replaced by veteran MNA François Gendron, pending 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.
Leadership race rules have been drafted by the National Executive Committee and approved by the National Conference of Presidents. Candidates have until July 17, 2007 to declare. If the leadership is contested the vote result will be announced on August 25, 2007.
Marois was acclaimed leader on June 26, 2007.

Relationship with the Bloc Québécois

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.
The two parties 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 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 fifth party (the Bloc Pot, with 0.5% of vote turnout in 2004). The UFP then merged with Option citoyenne to form the new political party Québec Solidaire.

Logo

The party's symbol was designed in 1968 by painter and poet Roland Giguère. 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 ^[4].
The creator represented the second letter of the two-letter acronym only (see the Hydro-Québec logo, also an example of a second letter design).
Compared to the rival Parti libéral du Québec, which has completely changed its logo often, the PQ has made very few significant modifications to its logo during its history. In 1985 it made the circle and arrow slightly thicker, and placed the tip of the latter at the centre of the circle. The original saw it span the whole diameter. When placed upon a blue background instead of a white one, the circle was commonly turned to white, the single main design variation currently observed.
The party revealed a new logo on 21 February 2007, at the beginning of the 2007 provincial election campaign. While maintaining the basic style of past logos, the Q was redesigned and modernized. In addition, the tail of the Q was recoloured green, in order to present a more environmentally-friendly image of the party.

Slogans

These are the slogans used by the Parti Québécois in general election campaigns throughout its history. They are displayed with an unofficial translation. The elections in which the PQ won or remained in power are in bold.

★ 1970: ''OUI'' - Yes

★ 1973: ''J'ai le goût du Québec'' - I have a taste for Quebec

★ '1976: ''On a besoin d'un vrai gouvernement'' - We need a real government'

★ '1981: ''Faut rester forts au Québec'' - We must remain strong in Quebec'

★ 1985: ''Le Québec avec Johnson'' - Quebec with Johnson

★ 1989: ''Je prends le parti du Québec'' - I'm choosing Quebec's party / I'm taking Quebec's side (double meaning)

★ '1994: ''L'autre façon de gouverner'' - The other way of governing'

★ '1998: ''J'ai confiance'' - I am confident / I trust'

★ 2003: ''Restons forts'' - Let us remain strong

★ 2007: ''Reconstruisons notre Québec'' - Let us rebuild our Quebec

Party leaders

★ René Lévesque (1968–1985; Premier 1976–1985)

★ Pierre-Marc Johnson (1985–1987; Premier 1985)

★ Guy Chevrette (1987) (interim leader)

★ 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 leader)

★ André Boisclair (2005–2007)

★ François Gendron (2007) (interim leader)

★ Pauline Marois (2007-present)

Leadership elections

★ Parti Québécois leadership election, 1985

★ Parti Québécois leadership election, 2005

★ Parti Québécois leadership election, 2007

Election results

General election	# of candidates	# of seats won	% of popular vote	result
1970	108	7	23.06%	Liberal majority
1973	110	6	30.22%	Liberal majority
1976	110	71	41.37%	PQ majority
1981	122	80	49.26%	PQ majority
1985	122	23	38.69%	Liberal majority
1989	125	29	40.16%	Liberal majority
1994	125	77	44.75%	PQ majority
1998	124	76	42.87%	PQ majority
2003	125	45	33.24%	Liberal majority
2007	125	36	28.33%	Liberal minority

References

1. Bernard Landry quits as Parti Quebecois leader
2. PQ fails miserably to rally sovereignists
3. Quebec Separatist Leader Resigns
4. Archives de Radio-Canada: Fondation du Parti québécois

Further reading

★ Godin, Pierre. ''René Lévesque, Héros malgré lui'', Éditions Boréal, 1997. ISBN 2-89052-833-2

See also

★ SPQ Libre

★ Parti Québécois Crisis, 1984

★ Politics of Quebec

★ History of Quebec

★ List of political parties in Quebec

★ Sovereigntist events and strategies

★ Secessionist movements of Canada

External links

★ Parti québécois website

★ Parti québécois' parliamentary group website

★ National Assembly historical information