The Parti National was the name taken by the Liberal Party of Quebec, Canada, under the premiership of Honoré Mercier.

Origin and beliefs

It was founded on November 17, 1885, the day following the execution of Métis Leader Louis Riel. Many

French-speaking French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

Catholics resented the way the federal government of

Sir John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...

had Riel hanged for treason. Mercier proposed to create a broader coalition which would include Conservative dissidents as well as his Liberal base. In the following days 50,000 people gathered in the Champ de Mars in Montreal to hear Mercier voice their support for Riel. The Parti National, which was not affiliated with any federal party, promised to use the influence of the provincial government protect the

autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...

of Quebec and of its

and Catholic identity.

Rise to power

The party won a narrow majority of seats to the

Legislative Assembly of Quebec The Legislative Assembly of Quebec (French: ''Assemblée législative du Québec'') was the name of the lower house of Quebec's legislature from 1867 to December 31, 1968, when it was renamed the National Assembly of Quebec. At the same time, t ...

in the 1886 provincial election and took office in January 1887. It won a

landslide victory A landslide victory is an election result in which the victorious candidate or party wins by an overwhelming margin. The term became popular in the 1800s to describe a victory in which the opposition is "buried", similar to the way in which a geol ...

in the 1890 election, doing poorly only in the

Mauricie Mauricie () is a traditional and current administrative region of Quebec. La Mauricie National Park is contained within the region, making it a prime tourist location. The region has a land area of 35,860.05 km² (13,845.64 sq mi) and a popu ...

area where it was opposed by Ultramontan Catholic Bishop Louis-François Richer Laflèche. Its achievements include: * Organizing the first interprovincial conference in Quebec City in 1887 * Passing the ''Jesuit Estates Act'', which gave the order $400,000 in compensation for loss of property confiscated by the government decades earlier * Establishing a department of Agriculture and Colonization in 1887 and appointing

Curé Labelle François-Xavier-Antoine Labelle (November 24, 1833 – January 4, 1891) was a Roman Catholic priest and the person principally responsible for the settlement (or "colonization") of the Laurentians. He is also referred to as "Curé Labelle" an ...

as its deputy minister * Expanding the railroad to support the migration of urban residents to rural parts of Quebec, such as the Laurentides and Gaspésie * Creating night schools, starting in 1889

Decline

With only 18 months served in its second term of office, the National Party was caught in a corruption scandal and removed from office by Quebec Lieutenant-governor Auguste-Réal Angers. Mercier stepped down as party leader and the Liberals were overwhelmingly defeated in the 1892 election. Mercier was later cleared of all charges.

Other ''Partis Nationaux''

* Mercier had tried to create a "Parti national" in 1872. This first attempt seems to have been short-lived and fruitless. Biography of Honoré Mercier, Assemblée nationale du Québec
* Nationalist politicians René Chaloult, Oscar Drouin, Joseph-Ernest Grégoire, Philippe Hamel and Adolphe Marcoux announced the creation of a "Parti National" in 1937, after they had

left Left may refer to: Music * ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006 * ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right * L ...

the Union Nationale. It seems that this effort was abandoned briefly after. Chalout and Drouin ran as Liberals in the 1939 election.

Footnotes

External links