The Parti du socialisme chrétien (PSC; known in English as the Christian Socialist Party) was a fringe 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, ...

. It fielded 103 candidates in the

1985 Quebec general election The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. Despite its name, the PSC had no connection with Canada's

social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

political tradition. It was established by Jacques Paquette, a former heroin addict who operated drug treatment centres throughout Quebec in the 1980s. The party was primarily focused on drug issues, supporting both the legalization of

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae that is widely accepted as being indigenous to and originating from the continent of Asia. However, the number of species is disputed, with as many as three species be ...

and the introduction of the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

for traffickers in hard drugs. On one occasion, Paquette said that he would establish a leftist dictatorship in a "free Quebec" to remove heroin dealers from the province. He also promoted the use of

handgun A handgun is a firearm designed to be usable with only one hand. It is distinguished from a long gun, long barreled gun (i.e., carbine, rifle, shotgun, submachine gun, or machine gun) which typically is intended to be held by both hands and br ...

s by citizen vigilantes to fight

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

. Paquette ran in the 1985 election in Hull under the name "Jacob Easter", which was intended as a humorous translation of his real name. He placed last in a field of six candidates. Paquette was killed in a car crash near Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec, on August 28, 1986."Christian Socialist dies in crash," ''The Globe and Mail'', 29 August 1986, A4. The party appears to have become inactive after his death.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parti du socialisme chretien Provincial political parties in Quebec