René Chaloult (January 26, 1901 – December 20, 1978) was a

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...

politician in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, 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 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

Background

He was born on January 26, 1901, in

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), 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 Communauté métrop ...

Political career

Chaloult first won a seat to the

Legislative Assembly of Quebec The Legislative Assembly of Quebec (French: ''Assemblée législative du Québec'') was the name of the lower house of Quebec's legislature from 1867 to December 31, 1968, when it was renamed the National Assembly of Quebec. At the same time, ...

as a Union Nationale candidate in the 1936 election in the district of Kamouraska. In 1937, he and colleagues

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and

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left the Union Nationale.Chronologie parlementaire depuis 1791 (1937-1939)
/ref> Chaloult joined the Liberals and won re-election in the 1939 election as the Member for the district of Lotbinière. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Chaloult opposed conscription. He won re-election 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 * Independe ...

in Québec-Comté electoral district in the

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in No ...

and

1948 elections The following elections occurred in the year 1948. Africa * 1948 Mauritian general election * 1948 South African general election * 1948 Southern Rhodesian general election Asia * 1948 North Korean parliamentary election * 1948 Republic of China ...

, but was defeated in the 1952 election and in the district of Jonquière-Kénogami in the 1956 election. Chaloult retired to live at his summer home in Kamouraska. Each year on July 1, he would fly the Quebec flag outside his summer home at half-staff to show his nationalist inclinations.

Death

He died on December 20, 1978.

Legacy

For many years, Chaloult urged Quebec to adopt a distinctive design for its

flag A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design emp ...

. On November 19, 1946, Chaloult entered a motion to provide Quebec with a unique flag. Two years later, the motion was to be voted on January 21, 1948. However, the opportunistic government of

Maurice Duplessis Maurice Le Noblet Duplessis (; April 20, 1890 – September 7, 1959), was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 16th premier of Quebec. A conservative, nationalist, anti-Communist, anti-unionist and fervent Catholic, he and hi ...

instead issued a decree creating the current Quebec flag.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaloult, Rene 1901 births 1978 deaths French Quebecers Politicians from Quebec City Quebec Liberal Party MNAs Union Nationale (Quebec) MNAs Université Laval alumni