François Aquin (March 6, 1929 – November 23, 2017) was a

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

politician in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, Canada.

Background

Aquin was an attorney. He was born on March 6, 1929, in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

and died on November 23, 2017, in

. He was a cousin of writer

Hubert Aquin Hubert Aquin (24 October 1929 – 15 March 1977) was a Quebec novelist, Activism, political activist, essayist, filmmaker and editor. Aquin was born in Montreal and graduated from the Université de Montréal in 1951. From 1951 to 1954, he stu ...

Liberal Activist

Early on, Aquin was a supporter of the

Liberal Party of Quebec 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. The QLP has always been associated with the colour red; ...

. He was President of the party's Youth Commission from 1959 to 1963 and President of the party from 1963 to 1964.

Member of the legislature

Aquin won a seat to the Legislative Assembly of Quebec in 1966 in the district of Dorion. In the aftermath of French President Charles de Gaulle's visit to Canada, Aquin declared himself in favor of the political independence of Quebec and left his party to sit as an Independent. With René Lévesque and other supporters, he co-founded the ''Mouvement Souveraineté–Association'' in April 1968, which officially became the

Parti Québécois The Parti Québécois (; ; PQ) is a sovereignist and social democratic provincial political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates national sovereignty for Quebec involving independence of the province of Quebec from Canada and establishin ...

in October of that same year. In November 1968 though, Aquin resigned his seat.

Footnotes

1929 births 2017 deaths Politicians from Montreal Quebec Liberal Party MNAs French Quebecers {{Liberal-Quebec-MNA-stub