Citoyens au pouvoir du Québec (; ) is a minor political party in the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

province of

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, ...

. The Party gave its support to the Anti-mask movement during the COVID-19 pandemic and was accused of having ties with far-right group

La Meute La Meute (, "The Pack") is a Québécois nationalist pressure group and identitarian movement fighting against illegal immigration and radical Islam. The group was founded in September 2015 in Quebec by two former Canadian Armed Forces members, ...

Platform

The main policy point in the party's platform is the creation of a

constituent assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

via random draw which will help "give freedom to citizens to decide on the type of society, state and government they want". They advocate for elected deputy's duty to consult their fellow citizens and vote according to their constituency's opinions instead of their party line. The party proposes the establishment of

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...

, through referendums initiated by the citizens, on the model in use in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

History

The party was founded in 2011 under the name ''Coalition pour la constituante'' (Coalition for a constituent assembly) when the Mouvement des Sans-Parti issued its manifesto, signed by over 500 supporters. It became officially registered under the Election Act in June 2012Register of authorized political entities of Québec
(archived, 2018) and it first ran candidates in the September 2012 election. The party changed its name in 2013 to ''Parti des sans parti'' (Party of people without a party), then in 2015 to ''Sans parti – Citoyens constituants'' (Without a party - Constituent citizens) and again in 2016 to its present name, ''Citoyens au pouvoir du Québec'' (Citizens in power of Quebec). A renewed registration was issued by the Chief Electoral Officer in 2019. Although the party has a leader as required by the Election Act, its direct democracy used to render this role obsolete and it used spokespersons instead and its candidates were called mandataries. In 2019, it adopted a more standard model with leader and candidates. Under the leadership of Stéphane Blais, the party took positions opposing health measures aimed at combatting the

COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec The COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec was part of the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Until 2021, Quebec had reported the hi ...

, and has been accused of promoting COVID-19 misinformation in Canada. In May 2021, Blais resigned as party leader and Stéphane Lévesque was named interim leader. In October 2021, Lévesque announced he was discussing with party members the future of the party. Lévesque provided party membership with three options: the continued survival of the party, merging with an existing party, or the dissolution of the party.

Spokespersons

* Marc Fafard, June 2012-September 2012 * Daniel Guersan, 2012-2013 * Frank Malenfant, 2013–2016 * Bernard Gauthier, 2016-2017 * Stéphane Blais, 2018-2021

Election results

Notes and references

External links