Bloc Québécois
| Bloc Québécois | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Party leader | Yves-François Blanchet |
| Emergence | Split from the Progressive Conservative Party and the Liberal Party |
| founding | June 15, 1991 |
| Headquarters | 3750, boulevard Crémazie Est Suite 502 Montreal , Québec H2A 1B6 |
| Youth organization | Forum jeunesse du Bloc Québécois |
| Alignment |
Separatism social democracy left-wing liberalism |
| Colours) | Light Blue |
| House of Commons |
32/338 |
| senate |
0/105 |
| Number of members | 19,000 |
| Website | www.blocquebecois.org |
The Bloc Québécois is a social democratic and separatist party in Canada . She runs for federal elections only in the French-speaking province of Québec . Members and sympathizers of the Bloc are referred to as bloquistes ( blɔ.kist ). In the 2019 general election, the Bloc won 32 of the 78 seats that the province of Québec is entitled to.
Political orientation
Apart from the question of independence, the Bloc positions itself on the left political spectrum. Among other things, he campaigns for the legal equality of same-sex marriage , for the legalization of marijuana and for the Kyoto Protocol . The long-term goal of the Bloc is Québec's independence, and it also represents the interests of Québec's residents in the federal parliament. The Bloc is supported by numerous trade unions and works closely with the Parti Québécois , which only operates at the provincial level - it is de facto the national political arm of this party, but there are no organizational ties. Nevertheless, both parties supported each other in election campaigns and many members also belong to the other party.
history
During the Québec Revolution , the idea of Québec's independence became popular among some of the population. In protest against the poor social situation of the francophone population, the Front de liberation du Québec (FLQ), founded in 1963, violently fought for Québec's independence. The government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau fought the terrorists with tough emergency laws and deployed the Canadian army in Montreal . The Parti Québécois , founded in 1968, took over the provincial government for the first time in 1976 under its chairman René Lévesque . In 1977, the PQ government declared French to be the only official language of Québec (see Charter of the French Language ) and in 1980 organized the first referendum on the independence of the province, which was rejected by the voters.
In its current form, the Bloc Québécois emerged in 1990 from an informal alliance between members of the Progressive Conservative Party and the Liberal Party who resigned from their parties after the failure of the Meech Lake Accord . Actually, the Bloc should only be a temporary connection that dissolves after independence is achieved. To this day, the Liberals speak of a “temporary ad hoc rainbow coalition.” The informal association was headed by Lucien Bouchard , who had been Environment Minister until he resigned from Brian Mulroney's federal government. Gilles Duceppe was the first elected MP to the Bloc when he won a by-election in August 1990. He started as an independent because the Bloc was not yet registered as a federal party at the time.
In the 1993 general election , two years after its formal establishment, the Bloc immediately won 54 seats in Québec. Since the votes of the opposition were divided between the Reform Party , the Progressive Conservative Party and the New Democratic Party , the Bloc became the second strongest force in parliament and thus the “official opposition”. In 1995 the Parti Québécois called a second referendum for independence. This referendum narrowly failed, with 50.58 percent of the voters in Québec voting to stay with Canada. The day after the failed referendum, Provincial Prime Minister Jacques Parizeau announced his impending resignation. Thereupon Bouchard gave up his office as chairman of the Bloc and became its successor.
Michel Gauthier followed as the new chairman of the Bloc, who, however, resigned after a year and was replaced by Gilles Duceppe. In the 1997 general election , the Bloc lost ten seats and its official opposition status. Three years later , the Bloc fell to a low of 38 seats. The main cause was the unpopular forced amalgamation of communities in several metropolitan areas carried out by the PQ government, which led to the liberals winning seats in the corresponding areas. Due to the unpopularity of the liberal provincial government of Jean Charest , the Bloc was able to gain significantly in the 2004 general election and again reached the level of 1993. The absolute majority of the votes in Québec in the 2006 general election seemed possible, but ultimately resulted from the rise of the Conservatives Rural party three lost seats. The 2011 general election saw a major slump: of 49 seats won in the 2008 general election , only four could be defended. Four years later, the Bloc continued to lose votes and with 19.3% achieved the lowest percentage of votes since its first candidacy in 1993, but was able to increase the number of its seats to ten.
Election results
Results of the House of Commons elections :
| choice | seats total |
candidates data |
Weighted seats |
be right | Share (in Canada) |
Share (in Québec) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | 295 | 75 | 54 | 1,835,784 | 13.52% | 49.3% |
| 1997 | 295 | 75 | 44 | 1,385,821 | 10.67% | 37.9% |
| 2000 | 301 | 75 | 38 | 1,377,727 | 10.72% | 39.9% |
| 2004 | 308 | 75 | 54 | 1,680,109 | 12.40% | 48.9% |
| 2006 | 308 | 75 | 51 | 1,553,201 | 10.48% | 42.1% |
| 2008 | 308 | 75 | 49 | 1,379,565 | 10.0% | 38.1% |
| 2011 | 308 | 75 | 4th | 889.788 | 6.0% | 23.4% |
| 2015 | 338 | 78 | 10 | 818,652 | 4.7% | 19.3% |
Party leader
- Lucien Bouchard (July 25, 1990 - January 16, 1996)
- Gilles Duceppe (January 16, 1996 - February 17, 1996, interim)
- Michel Gauthier (February 17, 1996 - March 15, 1997)
- Gilles Duceppe (March 15, 1997 - May 2, 2011)
- Vivian Barbot (May 2, 2011 - December 11, 2011, interim)
- Daniel Paillé (December 11, 2011 - December 16, 2013)
- André Bellavance (December 16, 2013 - February 25, 2014, interim)
- Annie Lessard (February 25, 2014 - June 14, 2014, interim)
- Mario Beaulieu (since June 14, 2014)
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Results of past general election - Elections Canada
- ^ Mario Beaulieu named new Bloc Québécois leader. CBC / Radio-Canada, June 14, 2014, accessed December 28, 2014 .