André-Gilles Fortin (; November 13, 1943 – June 24, 1977) was a Canadian politician. Fortin was a member of the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

for Lotbinière. He was first elected in the 1968 federal election for the

Ralliement Créditiste There were a few political parties that were part of the Canadian social credit movement in Quebec. There were various parties at different times with different names at the provincial level, all broadly following the social credit philosophy; th ...

, which in 1971 merged with the

Social Credit Party of Canada The Social Credit Party of 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 Canadian social credit movement. Origins ...

. Fortin was elected leader of the party on November 7, 1976, after his popular predecessor,

Réal Caouette David Réal Caouette (; September 26, 1917 – December 16, 1976) was a Canadian politician from Quebec. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) and leader of the Social Credit Party of Canada and founder of the '' Ralliement des créditistes''. O ...

, was forced to resign due to illness. The party was then struggling, having lost almost all its support in the west and in decline in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

where its members were divided between support for

Canadian federalism Canadian federalism () involves the current nature and historical development of the federal system in Canada. Canada is a federation with eleven components: the national Government of Canada and ten Provinces and territories of Canada, p ...

and for sovereignty association for Quebec, a position supported by René Matte whom Fortin defeated for the leadership. Fortin's efforts to rebuild the party were cut short when he was killed after only eight months as leader. Fortin died in a car crash at about three in the morning on June 24, 1977, at the age of 33. It is believed that he fell asleep while driving and his car went off the highway, where it missed a bridge and jumped over a river, slamming into the embankment on the other side. The accident took place on the

Trans-Canada Highway The Trans-Canada Highway (Canadian French, French: ; abbreviated as the TCH or T-Can) is a transcontinental federal–provincial highway system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada, from the Pacific Ocean on the west coast to the A ...

between

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and

Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...

. At the time of his death, he had two young children. Réal Caouette's 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 t ...

, became acting leader of the party five days later.

Electoral record

References

External links

* 1943 births 1977 deaths Accidental deaths in Quebec Members of the House of Commons of Canada from Quebec Road incident deaths in Canada Social Credit Party of Canada MPs Social Credit Party of Canada leaders 20th-century members of the House of Commons of Canada {{Quebec-MP-stub

Archives

Electoral record

References

External links