From La Fontaine to Duhaime: the Conservatives have already been in power in Quebec

Without succeeding in being elected, Éric Duhaime nevertheless resuscitated a political party which had practically disappeared for more than 80 years. He is still talked about these days, trying somehow to get a small place in the National Assembly. Let’s revisit the history of this party that once dominated Quebec politics.

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Originally, what would become the conservative party brought together the supporters of Louis-Hippolyte La Fontaine, who in the early 1850s formed the “blue party”, opposed to the anticlericalism and liberal radicalism of Louis-Hippolyte’s “red party”. -Joseph Papineau.

The “blues” of Lower Canada, led by George-Étienne Cartier, allied themselves with supporters of John A. Macdonald of Upper Canada to form a coalition government from 1857 to 1862. This conservative alliance was to origin of the Confederation of 1867.

Lower Canada becomes the “province of Quebec” and it is the blue party, the conservative party, which forms the first government of the province with Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau as premier. During the three decades that followed, eight of the ten premiers of Quebec would be Conservatives.

The execution of Louis Riel

In the early 1880s, the party split between its moderates and its Catholic fundamentalist faction, the ultramontane “Castors”.

His ties with the federal Conservatives, hostile to Francophones and to Quebec, affected his popularity, especially after the hanging of Louis Riel in 1885.

Macdonald had declared that he “will be hanged even if all the dogs in Quebec bark in his favour”.

After the death in 1891 of Macdonald – whose statue was torn down in Montreal in 2020 – the Canada/Quebec coalition which formed the federal Conservative party broke out on the question of the abolition of French schools in Manitoba (1890).

The disaffection of Quebec will lead to the loss of power of the Conservatives in Ottawa in the 1896 elections and in Quebec the following year. The Conservative Party has never formed another government in Quebec since. Quebeckers’ revulsion for the Conservatives grew even more when Prime Minister Robert Borden imposed conscription in 1917, which sparked riots across Quebec.

The Death of the Party and Duplessis

In 1933, Maurice Duplessis took over the leadership of the Conservative party despite the opposition of resigning leader Camillien Houde, future mayor of Montreal. The following year, the Liberals in power tore themselves apart. Nationalist Liberals left the party of Louis-Alexandre Taschereau to form the National Liberal Action, which allied itself with the Conservatives in a coalition called “National Union” which won a resounding victory in 1936.

Supported by the majority of elected officials, Duplessis becomes leader of the party, which will take the name of the coalition. He retains a theme of the ALN that he considers profitable: provincial autonomy.

Except for the 1939-1944 hiatus, when the Liberals regained power, the Union Nationale would dominate Quebec politics until the death of Duplessis in 1959.

In the 1976 elections, the party had 11 seats. He will never have a deputy elected again.

Coming back to the Conservative Party of Quebec, it presented only three candidates in the 1939 elections, who won less than 1% of the vote. It will disappear shortly after… before being refounded in 2009. It won 0.18% of the vote in the 2012 election. Adrien Pouliot became its leader in 2013 to give way in 2021 to Éric Duhaime, a former the ADQ.

Under his leadership, the PCQ will collect 13% of the votes, but will not have any elected.