Réal Caouette
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David Réal Caouette (September 26, 1917 – December 16, 1976) was a Canadian politician from
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 ...
. He was a member of Parliament (MP) and leader of the
Social Credit Party of Canada The Social Credit Party of Canada (french: Parti Crédit social du Canada), colloquially known as the Socreds, was a populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform. It was the federal wing of the Canadi ...
and founder of the '' Ralliement des créditistes''. Outside politics he worked as a car dealer. His son,
Gilles Caouette Gilles Caouette (February 16, 1940 – August 13, 2009) was a Canadian politician and member of Parliament. Caouette was born in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec. His father, Réal Caouette, was a prominent Social Credit politician, and leader of the ...
, was also a Social Credit MP and was briefly acting leader of the party.


Early political career

Caouette was born in Amos, in the Abitibi region of Quebec, the son of Marie (Cloutier) and Samuel Caouette. Caouette was converted to the social credit philosophy in 1939. He was first elected to the
House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...
in a 1946 by-election in
Pontiac Pontiac may refer to: *Pontiac (automobile), a car brand *Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief Places and jurisdictions Canada *Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality ** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...
for the ''Union des electeurs,'' a pro-Social Credit group in Quebec. He sat as a
Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...
MP once elected. In the 1949 election, his home was drawn into the newly created Villeneuve, and he was defeated as a ''
Union des électeurs Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...
'' candidate.


Out of Parliament

He ran again in the 1953,
1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...
and 1958 elections, but was unsuccessful each time. He also ran provincially, for the
Quebec Liberal Party 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; e ...
, in the 1956 provincial election but was defeated. In 1958, he broke with ''Union des électeurs'' founders
Louis Even Louis Even (March 23, 1885, Montfort-sur-Meu – September 27, 1974) was a lay Christian leader and publisher who founded the social credit movement in Quebec. He co-founded and led the Pilgrims of Saint Michael, better known as the white berets, w ...
and Gilberte Côté-Mercier, and joined Social Credit forming '' Ralliement des créditistes'' as the national party's Quebec wing of which he became the uncontested leader.


Leadership defeat

In 1961, he ran for leadership of the Social Credit Party, but lost to Robert N. Thompson, a Social Credit MP from
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
. The totals were never released. Caouette later claimed that on paper, he would have had enough support to win if not for
Alberta Premier The premier of Alberta is the first minister for the Canadian province of Alberta, and the province's head of government. The current premier is Danielle Smith, leader of the United Conservative Party, who was sworn in on October 11, 2022. The ...
Ernest Manning Ernest Charles Manning, (September 20, 1908 – February 19, 1996), a Canadian politician, was the eighth Premier of Alberta between 1943 and 1968 for the Social Credit Party of Alberta. He served longer than any other premier in Alberta's histor ...
intervening in favour of Thompson. According to Caouette, Manning told the Quebec delegates to vote for Thompson because Western Socreds would never accept a Francophone Catholic as party leader.Dufresne, Bernard, “Québec’s Socreds vote to Disown Thompson”, ''Globe and Mail'', 2 September 1963, p.1


Breakthrough

In the 1962 election, Social Credit won 26 seats in Québec, led by Caouette, who returned as the member for Villeneuve. He held this seat until 1966, when he transferred to the newly created Témiscamingue, a riding he would hold for the rest of his life. The party won only four seats in the rest of Canada. Under the circumstances, Thompson was all but forced to name Caouette as the party's deputy leader. Holding the balance of power in the
House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...
, Social Credit helped bring down the Progressive Conservative
minority government A minority government, minority cabinet, minority administration, or a minority parliament is a government and Cabinet (government), cabinet formed in a parliamentary system when a political party or Coalition government, coalition of parties do ...
of
John Diefenbaker John George Diefenbaker ( ; September 18, 1895 – August 16, 1979) was the 13th prime minister of Canada, serving from 1957 to 1963. He was the only Progressive Conservative party leader between 1930 and 1979 to lead the party to an electio ...
. However, in the 1963 election, Social Credit was reduced to 24 seats nationwide, all but four of which were in Quebec. Caouette fought for
bilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
in the House of Commons, winning a symbolic victory when he got the Parliament's restaurant to produce bilingual menus.''
Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...
'', "Real Caouette: Question now; can message survive?", John Gray, November 9, 1976, p.9
In this, he anticipated the
official bilingualism An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...
policy that would later be put into effect by
Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada The prime mini ...
. The Socred MPs from Québec considered Caouette as their true leader. Over time, Caouette came to believe that since the party was most successful in Québec, he should be the leader of the party instead of Thompson. As well, Caouette and his followers remained true believers in the
social credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...
monetary theories of C.H. Douglas while Thompson and the party's two most powerful branches—in
Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
and
British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
—had largely abandoned the theory. Thompson refused to step aside, prompting Caouette and virtually all of the Socred MPs from Quebec to split from the party in 1963 and establish the ''Ralliement des créditistes'' as a separate political party. In the 1965 election, Caouette's ''Ralliement'' won nine seats, while Social Credit led by Thompson won five seats. In the 1968 election, Caouette's party won 14 seats while Social Credit won none. The two parties were reunited under Caouette's leadership for the 1972 election. The reunited Socreds won 15 seats in that election, all in Québec. It would never elect another MP from English Canada, though it continued to nominate candidates outside of Québec.


Later political career

In the 1974 federal election, the Social Credit Party machine in Québec was wracked by internal divisions. Caouette was suffering from a snowmobiling accident, and therefore the powerful voice that had carried Social Credit in prior elections was silenced. When he was able to speak, Caouette focussed his attacks on the Progressive Conservatives and the
New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...
, instead of the
Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...
, which was Social Credit's main competitor in Québec. Two weeks before the election was called, Caouette had informed the parliamentary caucus that he would resign as leader in the fall. Despite the party infighting, they managed 11 seats. Though this was one seat short of official status, the Speaker of the House of Commons agreed to recognize them as a party. The decline of the party accelerated after Caouette resigned from the party leadership in 1976. Caouette had announced in 1975 that he would step down from the leadership within a year. He was hospitalized after a stroke on September 16,''Montréal Gazette'', November 6, 1976, p. 11, "Socreds gather to elect leader Sunday" and died later that year. After his death in 1976, Social Credit in Québec and at the federal Canadian level went into decline. The party fell to only six seats under
Fabien Roy Fabien Roy (born April 17, 1928) is a former Canadian politician who was active in Quebec in the 1970s. Roy was elected to the National Assembly of Quebec and the House of Commons of Canada, and advocated social credit theories of monetary re ...
in the 1979 election. It was shut out of Parliament altogether in 1980, never to return. The party eventually folded in the 1990s.


Political views

Caouette mixed Social Credit's traditional
social conservatism Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institutio ...
with ardent
Québec nationalism Quebec nationalism or Québécois nationalism is a feeling and a political doctrine that prioritizes cultural belonging to, the defence of the interests of, and the recognition of the political legitimacy of the Québécois nation. It has been ...
. A populist leader and charismatic speaker, Caouette appealed to those who felt left out and pushed aside by financial institutions, traditional politicians, and what they perceived as elitist intellectuals. Throughout the course of his career, Caouette was known for making controversial and intemperate statements. Shortly after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Caouette claimed that his economic theories were the same as those of
Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
's government in Italy, and said that Mussolini and
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
were his political heroes. During the
October Crisis The October Crisis (french: Crise d'Octobre) refers to a chain of events that started in October 1970 when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James C ...
of 1970, he also claimed that leaders of the
Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
'' Front de libération du Québec'', which precipitated the
October Crisis The October Crisis (french: Crise d'Octobre) refers to a chain of events that started in October 1970 when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James C ...
, should be shot by a firing squad. While such statements may have resonated with ''Créditiste'' supporters, they impaired the party's popularity with the mainstream electorate. :"The disdain for outsiders always seemed to fit conveniently with the theory of conspiracy of the old parties. The Jews were another and equally convenient part of the Creditiste demonology and there was a continuing strain of anti-Semitism. After the 1962 triumph, Caouette revealed that his political heroes were
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
and
Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
. As late as a few years ago, his bookshelves contained ''
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' () or ''The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan for global domination. The hoax was plagiarized from several ...
'' ... If non-Creditistes were horrified, the loyalists did not seem to care."—John Gray


See also

* Politics of Québec * List of Québec general elections * Timeline of Québec history


Archives

There is a Réal Caouette fonds at Library and Archives Canada. Archival reference number is R7439.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Caouette, Real 1917 births 1976 deaths 20th-century Canadian politicians Anti-Masonry Antisemitism in Canada Canadian Roman Catholics Canadian anti-communists Canadian political party founders Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Neurological disease deaths in Ontario People from Amos, Quebec Social Credit Party of Canada MPs Social Credit Party of Canada leaders