Strength in Democracy ( French: ''Forces et Démocratie'', ) was a Canadian federal political party founded in 2014 by two

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 ...

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MPs). From October 2014 to October 2015, the party was represented 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 ...

by its two founding members, Jean-François Fortin and Jean-François Larose. The party was led from its inception by Fortin. The party failed to win a seat in the 2015 federal election, and both its sitting MPs were defeated. Fortin announced his resignation as leader on January 3, 2016. The party was deregistered by

Elections Canada Elections Canada (french: Élections Canada)The agency operates and brands itself as Elections Canada, its legal title is Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (). is the non-partisan agency responsible for administering Canadian federal electio ...

on September 9, 2016.

History

The Strength in Democracy party was formed on October 21, 2014, by Jean-François Fortin, a member of the Bloc Québécois, and Repentigny MP Jean-François Larose, a member of 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 ...

. The two MPs stated that the four major federal parties in Quebec (the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

(NDP), Liberals, and Bloc Québécois) were focused on power and politics over representing their constituents. Fortin, who had run for the leadership of the Bloc Québécois (BQ) in 2011, had left the BQ in August 2014 to sit as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

MP citing disapproval of new BQ leader Mario Beaulieu. The party announced that it would run candidates outside of Quebec in the 2015 federal election under the name "Strength in Democracy", and its first candidate, Toban Leckie, was announced in

Peterborough—Kawartha Peterborough—Kawartha is a federal electoral district in Ontario, Canada, that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada since 1953. Prior to the 2015 election, the riding was known as Peterborough. Geography It now consists o ...

. Jennifer McCreath, who ran for the party in

Avalon Avalon (; la, Insula Avallonis; cy, Ynys Afallon, Ynys Afallach; kw, Enys Avalow; literally meaning "the isle of fruit r appletrees"; also written ''Avallon'' or ''Avilion'' among various other spellings) is a mythical island featured in the ...

, was the first

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

candidate in a federal election. Independent MP Manon Perreault, who had been expelled from the New Democratic Party after being convicted for mischief, was announced on August 12, 2015, as the Strength in Democracy candidate in Montcalm where she sought re-election.

References

External links

Official English siteOfficial French siteStrength in Democracy – Canadian Political Parties and Political Interest Groups
– Web Archive created by the University of Toronto Libraries {{Canadian federal political parties 2014 establishments in Quebec 2016 disestablishments in Quebec Political parties established in 2014 Political parties disestablished in 2016 Federal political parties in Canada Social democratic parties in Canada Organizations based in Quebec Matane