Parti humaniste du Québec (English: Humanist Party of Quebec) was a provincial political party in

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 contested the 1985 provincial election and also fielded candidates in a number of

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

s before folding. The party's leader was Colette Renaud.Benoit Aubin, "New PQ platform alters party view of angry teachers," ''Montreal Gazette'', 29 October 1985, A4.

History

1980s

The Quebec Humanist Party was founded in February 1985 and was affiliated with the international

Humanist Party The Humanist International (also known as the International Humanist Party) is a consortium of political parties adhering to universal humanism founded in 1952. The five basic principles of Humanist International are: # The value of human li ...

organization. It claimed between 100 and 150 active members by June 1985. The party's platform included support for "non-discrimination, active non-violence, co-operativism, the principle of options and non-monopoly and the human being as a central value." The first election that the Humanist Party contested was a by-election in Bourget in June 1985. Renaud, running as the party's standard-bearer, received 485 votes (3.18%) for a fourth-place finish. The Humanist Party ran seventeen candidates in the 1985 election. During the campaign, Renaud said that her party would return politics to ordinary people; she described the Humanist Party as representing a "new left: non-violent, democratic, pluralist, co-operative and libertarian." The ''

Montreal Gazette ''The Gazette'', also known as the ''Montreal Gazette'', is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper which is owned by Postmedia Network. It is published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the only English-language daily newspape ...

'' noted that half of the party's Montreal-area candidates were women. The HP wanted to run candidates in the 1986 elections for Mayor of Montreal, but was refused on the grounds they were a provincial party. Instead, they created the Orange Party with Marie-Claire Desroches as party leader. Desroches dissolved the party within seven days of its creation and ran as an "independent Humanist." None of the party's candidates were elected. The party also contested by-elections in 1986 and 1987 before disappearing.

1990s

There was an attempt to re-establish the Humanist Party in Montreal in 1997 in order to field candidates at the federal level for the 1997 Canadian election. Ann Farrell was the party's spokesperson in this period.Jeff Heinrich, "Uh, Tom? Aren't you getting ahead of yourself?", ''Montreal Gazette'', 11 May 1997, A6. (Farrell later ran as an independent in the 1998 Quebec provincial election, possibly as an unofficial Humanist Party candidate.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parti humaniste du Quebec 1985 establishments in Quebec Defunct provincial political parties in Quebec

Political parties disestablished in 1987 Political parties established in 1985 1987 disestablishments in Quebec

History

1980s

1990s

See also

References