Quebec Liberal Party

Quebec Liberal Party Parti libéral du Québec
Abbreviation	PLQ QLP
Leader	Marc Tanguay (interim)
President	Rafael Primeau Ferraro
Founded	July 1, 1867; 157 years ago (July 1, 1867)
Headquarters	Montréal, Québec, H2R 2Y8 Ville de Québec, Québec, G1S 2P1
Membership (2023)	15,000–20,000[1][2]
Ideology	Liberalism Canadian federalism Economic liberalism
Political position	Centre[3] to centre-right[4] 1990s: Centre-right[5]
National affiliation	Liberal Party of Canada (until 1955)
Colours	Red and blue
Seats in the National Assembly	19 / 125
Website
plq.org/fr/
Politics of Quebec Political parties Elections

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The Quebec Liberal Party (QLP; French: Parti libéral du Québec, PLQ) is a provincial political party in Quebec. It has been independent of the federal Liberal Party of Canada since 1955.^[6][7][8] The QLP has always been associated with the colour red; each of their main opponents in different eras have been generally associated with the colour blue.^[9]

The QLP has traditionally supported a form of Quebec federalist ideology with nuanced Canadian nationalist tones that supports Quebec remaining within the Canadian federation, while also supporting reforms that would allow substantial autonomism in Quebec. In the context of federal Canadian politics,^[10] it is a more centrist party when compared to Conservative and Liberal parties in other provinces, such as the former British Columbia Liberal Party.^[11]

The Liberal Party is descended from the Parti canadien (or Parti Patriote), who supported the 1837 Lower Canada Rebellion, and the Parti rouge, who fought for responsible government and against the authority of the Roman Catholic Church in Lower Canada. The most notable figure of this period was Louis-Joseph Papineau.

The Liberals were in opposition to the ruling Conservatives for most of the first 20 years after Canadian Confederation, except for 18 months of Liberal minority government in 1878–1879. However, the situation changed in 1885 when the federal Conservative government refused to commute the death sentence of Louis Riel, the leader of the French-speaking Métis people of western Canada. This decision was unpopular in Quebec. Honoré Mercier rode this wave of discontent to power in 1887, but was brought down by a scandal in 1891. He was later cleared of all charges. The Conservatives returned to power until 1897.

The Liberals won the 1897 election, and held power without interruption for the next 39 years; the Conservatives never held power in Québec again. This mirrored the situation in Ottawa, where the arrival of Wilfrid Laurier in the 1896 federal election marked the beginning of Liberal Party of Canada dominance at the federal level. Notable long-serving Premiers of Quebec in this era were Lomer Gouin and Louis-Alexandre Taschereau.

By 1935, the Conservatives had an ambitious new leader, Maurice Duplessis. Duplessis merged his party with dissident ex-Liberals who had formed the Action libérale nationale. Duplessis led the new party, the Union Nationale (UN), to power in the 1936 election. The Liberals returned to power in the 1939 election, but lost it again in the 1944 election. They remained in opposition to the Union Nationale until one year after Duplessis's death in 1959.

In 1955, the PLQ severed its affiliation with the Liberal Party of Canada.^{[citation needed]}

Under Jean Lesage, the party won an historic election victory in 1960, ending sixteen years of rule by the national-conservative Union Nationale. This marked the beginning of the Quiet Revolution, which dramatically changed Québec society. During this time a social-democratic faction within the party was especially prominent.^[12] Under the slogans C'est l'temps qu'ça change (it's time for change) in 1960 and maîtres chez nous (masters in our own house) in 1962, the Quebec government undertook several major initiatives, including:

• Full nationalization of the electricity industry through merger of 11 private companies with the government-owned Hydro-Québec — this major initiative of the government was led by the minister of natural resources, René Lévesque, in 1963.
• Creation of a public pension plan, the Régie des rentes du Québec (QPP/RRQ), separate from the Canada Pension Plan that exists in all other provinces of Canada, and creation of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ).
• Elimination of tuition fees for public elementary & secondary schools and creation of the Ministère de l'éducation du Québec.
• Secularisation of schools and hospitals.
• Creation of the Société générale de financement (SGF).
• Creation of the first incarnation of the Office québécois de la langue française (OQLF, originally OLF).
• Mandatory call for bids for all public works contracts above $25,000 (René Lévesque, 1960).
• Creation of Obligations d'épargne du Québec (Québec savings bonds) in 1963.
• Right to strike in public service (1964).
• Creation of an office in Paris, introduction of the Gérin-Lajoie doctrine (meaning that Québec has rights to its own international presence matching its domestic range of jurisdiction).

Under Lesage, the Liberals developed a Quebec nationalist wing. In July 1964, the Quebec Liberal Federation led by Lesage formally disaffiliated from the federal Liberal Party of Canada, making the Quebec Liberal Party a distinct organization from its federal counterpart.^[13][14]

In October 1967, former cabinet minister René Lévesque proposed that the party endorse his plan for sovereignty-association. The proposal was rejected and, as a result, some Liberals, including Lévesque, left the Liberals to join the sovereignty movement, participating in the founding of the Parti Québécois (PQ) under Lévesque's leadership.^[14]

Relations soured between the Quebec Liberal Party and the federal Liberal Party under Lesage, and worsened further under Robert Bourassa, who had a poor relationship with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

First elected in 1970, Robert Bourassa instituted Bill 22 to introduce French as the official language in Quebec, and pushed Trudeau for constitutional concessions. Reelected in 1973, his government was also embarrassed by several scandals. Bourassa resigned from the party's leadership after the loss of the 1976 election to René Lévesque's Parti Québécois.

Bourassa was succeeded as Liberal leader by Claude Ryan, the former director of the respected Montréal newspaper, Le Devoir. Ryan led the successful federalist campaign in the 1980 Quebec referendum on Québec sovereignty, but then lost the 1981 election. He resigned as Liberal leader some time later, paving the way for the return of Robert Bourassa.

When Bourassa returned as Premier in 1985, he persuaded the federal Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney to recognize Quebec as a distinct society, and sought greater powers for Quebec and the other provinces. This resulted in the Meech Lake Accord and Charlottetown Accord. Both of these proposals, however, were not ratified. While a Quebec nationalist, Bourassa remained an opponent of independence for Quebec.

Daniel Johnson Jr. succeeded Bourassa as Liberal leader and Premier of Québec in 1994, but soon lost the 1994 election to the Parti Québécois under Jacques Parizeau.

In 1993, after the failure of the Charlottetown Accord, many nationalist members of the Liberal party led by Jean Allaire and Mario Dumont, including many from the party's youth wing, left to form the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) because the Liberal Party dropped most of its autonomist demands during the negotiation of the Charlottetown Accord. As in 1980, the PLQ campaigned successfully for a "no" vote in the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty.

Around the time of the 1998 Quebec general election, the party was referred to as being on the centre-right of the political spectrum.^[5]

The Liberals regained power in the 2003 election. Premier Jean Charest was a federal cabinet minister with the now-defunct Progressive Conservative Party including a stint as Deputy Prime Minister and even serving as its leader for a time. The QLP government proposed a policy of reform of social programs and cuts to government spending and the civil service, and established a controversial health system fee for all taxpayers.

It has also softened language policies. In response to a Supreme Court of Canada decision overruling a loophole-closing stopgap measure enacted by the Bernard Landry government, the Liberals enacted Loi 104 which provides for English-language, unsubsidized private school students to transfer into the subsidized English-language system, thus receiving the right to attend English schools in Québec for their siblings and all descendants, should the student demonstrate a bureaucratically-defined parcours authentique within the English system. Meanwhile, the Office québécois de la langue française (Quebec Board of the French Language) under the Liberal provincial government has also opted for a demand-side strategy for the enforcement of language laws, using a number of publicity campaigns, including stickers which merchants may voluntarily affix on their shop windows stating that French service may be obtained within, allowing for consumers to "choose" stores which will serve them in French.

The Liberal party suffered a major setback in the 2007 election, which saw them reduced to a minority government, having lost francophone support to the surging ADQ.^[15] However, the party regained a majority in the 2008 election, which saw the collapse of ADQ support and the return of the Parti Québécois as the main opposition party. Election turnout was the lowest in Québec since the Quiet Revolution.

Since its most recent election, the Liberal government has faced a number of scandals, including historic losses at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the attribution of highly sought-after subsidized daycare spaces to Liberal Party donors, as well as allegations of systemic construction industry corruption which arose notably during the 2009 Montréal municipal election. After public pressure, the Liberal government eventually called for a public commission of inquiry. Jean Charest's personal approval ratings have at times been lower than those of other premiers.^[16]

In 2012, the Liberal government announced it was going to raise university tuition from $2,168 to $3,793 in increments between 2012 and 2017. This move proved controversial, leading to a significant portion of Quebec post-secondary students striking against the measures. In response to the discord the Quebec Liberal government introduced controversial emergency legislation via Bill 78 that restricted student protest activities, attacking students' right to strike and to demonstrate peacefully, and dealt with the administrative issues resulting from so many students missing classes.

After almost a decade in power, the Liberal government of Jean Charest was defeated in the 2012 provincial election by the Parti Québécois led by Pauline Marois. Charest was also personally defeated in his constituency and resigned as party leader.^[17]

They came back into power during the 2014 election under Philippe Couillard.^[18] In the 2018 election, they became the official opposition.^[19]

The contemporary Quebec Liberal Party is a broad-based federalist and multiculturalist coalition including among its members some supporters of the federal Liberals, New Democratic Party, Bloc Québécois, Greens, and Conservatives. In terms of voter support, it has always been able to rely on the great majority of non-Francophone people in Quebec, in other words, the great majority of Anglophones and Allophones.^[20]

The Quebec Liberal Party has faced various opposing parties in its history. Its main opposition from the time of the Confederation (1867) to the 1930s was the Parti conservateur du Québec. That party's successor, the Union Nationale, was the main opposition to the Liberals until the 1970s. Since then the Liberals have alternated in power with the Parti Québécois, a Quebec sovereigntist, self-described social-democratic party and very recently with the Coalition Avenir Québec, a Quebec autonomist and conservative party.

• Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière (1867–1883) (premier 1878–1879)
• Honoré Mercier (1883–1892) (premier 1887–1891)
• Félix-Gabriel Marchand (1892–1900) (premier 1897–1900)
• Simon-Napoléon Parent (1900–1905) (premier 1900–1905)
• Lomer Gouin (1905–1920) (premier 1905–1920)
• Louis-Alexandre Taschereau (1920–1936) (premier 1920–1936)
• Adélard Godbout (1936–1949) (premier 1936, 1939–1944)
• George Carlyle Marler (interim) (1949–1950)
• Georges-Émile Lapalme (1950–1958)
• Jean Lesage (31 May 1958 – 17 January 1970) (premier 1960–1966)
• Robert Bourassa (17 January 1970 – 1976) (premier 1970–1976)
• Gérard D. Levesque (interim) (1976–1978)
• Claude Ryan (1978–1982)
• Gérard D. Levesque (interim) (1982–1983)
• Robert Bourassa (1983–1994) (premier 1985–1994)
• Daniel Johnson Jr. (1994–1998) (premier 1994)
• Monique Gagnon-Tremblay (interim) (1998)
• Jean Charest (1998–2012) (premier 2003–2012)
• Jean-Marc Fournier (interim) (2012–2013)
• Philippe Couillard (2013–2018) (premier 2014–2018)
• Pierre Arcand (interim) (2018–2020)
• Dominique Anglade (2020–2022)
• Marc Tanguay (interim) (2022–present)

Election	Leader	No. of candidates	No. of seats won	Change +/-	Standing	% of popular vote	Legislative role	Government
1867	Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière	40	12 / 65	12	2nd	35.4%	Official Opposition	Conservative majority
1871		38	19 / 65	2	2nd	39.4%	Official Opposition	Conservative majority
1875		46	19 / 65		2nd	38.8%	Official Opposition	Conservative majority
1878		59	31 / 65	12	1st	47.5%	Minority Government	Liberal minority
1881		46	14 / 65	17	2nd	39.0%	Official Opposition	Conservative majority
1886	Honoré Mercier	49	33 / 65	19	1st	39.5%	Majority Government	Conservatives attempted to continue as a minority government for three months until they resigned and were replaced by a narrow Liberal majority.
1890		68	43 / 73	10	1st	44.5%	Majority Government	Initial Liberal Majority, became a minority due to defections and then replaced by Conservatives after the Liberal Premier was dismissed by the Lieutenant-Governor.
1892	Félix-Gabriel Marchand	62	21 / 73	22	2nd	43.7%	Official Opposition	Conservative majority
1897		78	51 / 74	30	1st	53.3%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1900	Simon-Napoléon Parent	77	67 / 74	16	1st	53.1%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1904		87	68 / 74	1	1st	55.5%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1908	Lomer Gouin	76	57 / 74	11	1st	54.2%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1912		83	62 / 81	5	1st	53.5%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1916		85	75 / 81	13	1st	64.0%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1919		99	74 / 81	1	1st	65.4%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1923	Louis-Alexandre Taschereau	92	63 / 85	11	1st	52.9%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1927		86	74 / 85	9	1st	60.3%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1931		90	79 / 90	5	1st	54.9%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1935		91	48 / 89	31	1st	46.8%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1936	Adélard Godbout	89	14 / 90	34	2nd	40.0%	Official Opposition	Union Nationale majority
1939		87	70 / 86	56	1st	54.1%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1944		91	37 / 91	21	2nd	39.4%	Official Opposition	Union Nationale majority
1948		93	8 / 92	29	2nd	36.2%	Official Opposition	Union Nationale majority
1952	Georges-Émile Lapalme	92	23 / 92	15	2nd	45.8%	Official Opposition	Union Nationale majority
1956		93	20 / 93	3	2nd	44.9%	Official Opposition	Union Nationale majority
1960	Jean Lesage	95	51 / 95	31	1st	51.3%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1962		97	63 / 95	12	1st	56.40%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1966		108	50 / 108	13	2nd	47.29%	Official Opposition	Union Nationale majority
1970	Robert Bourassa	108	72 / 108	22	1st	45.40%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1973		110	102 / 110	30	1st	54.65%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1976		110	26 / 110	76	2nd	33.77%	Official Opposition	Parti Québécois majority
1981	Claude Ryan	122	42 / 122	16	2nd	46.07%	Official Opposition	Parti Québécois majority
1985	Robert Bourassa	122	99 / 122	57	1st	55.99%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1989		125	92 / 125	7	1st	49.95%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
1994	Daniel Johnson Jr.	125	47 / 125	48	2nd	44.40%	Official Opposition	Parti Québécois majority
1998	Jean Charest	125	48 / 125	1	2nd	43.55%	Official Opposition	Parti Québécois majority
2003		125	76 / 125	28	1st	45.99%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
2007		125	48 / 125	28	1st	33.07%	Minority Government	Liberal minority
2008		125	66 / 125	18	1st	42.06%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
2012		125	50 / 125	16	2nd	31.20%	Official Opposition	Parti Québécois minority
2014	Philippe Couillard	125	70 / 125	20	1st	41.50%	Majority Government	Liberal majority
2018		125	31 / 125	39	2nd	24.82%	Official Opposition	Coalition Avenir Québec majority
2022	Dominique Anglade	125	21 / 125	7	2nd	14.4%	Official Opposition	Coalition Avenir Québec majority

• Liberalism in Canada
• List of Quebec general elections
• List of Quebec premiers
• List of Quebec leaders of the Opposition
• Quebec Liberal Party leadership elections

• Parti libéral du Québec official website (in English)
• National Assembly historical information (in French)
• Liberal Party Election Performances (in French)
• EQUITAS Rule of Law Commission - Québec File,^{[permanent dead link]} an independent supervising body providing forensic analysis of QLP form of governance