Bloc Québécois

The Bloc Québécois is a federal political party that was officially recognized on June 15th of 1991. Before the Bloc Québécois was recognized, it had been a coalition group of Conservative and Liberal MPs who quit after the Meech Lake Accord[1] failed in 1990. The party was founded by Lucien Bouchard, who was a former cabinet minister of the Progressive Conservative party.

 

Lucien Bouchard was dissatisfied with the proposed change of the Meech Lake Accord; consequently, he left and created what he thought would be a temporary party, the Bloc Québécois. Later, other MPs joined Bouchard, and the Bloc was officially recognized as a federal political party in 1990. The Bloc Québécois is basically a federal political party that seeks independence of Quebec from Canada. It also desires to create an environment to maximize the success of Quebec’s economy.

 

In its first election in 1993, the Bloc won 54 seats out of 75 seats solely in Quebec. The Bloc, with 54 seats, became the Official Opposition of the Liberals in the House of Commons. However, as time passed, people’s support for the Bloc and separatism gradually decreased, causing the party to win fewer and fewer seats in each election.  Up until 2011, the Bloc still acquired a decent number of seats – more than twenty. The most significant drop in the number of seats occurred in the 2011 election, where the Bloc Québécois only won a total of four seats.

 

In 1995, a second referendum (Quebec Referendum) on separatism was called by the Parti Québécois. The Bloc advocated the “Yes” side, but the referendum ended with a 49.6% for “Yes” to separatism. As a result, the “No” side won with 50.6%.

 

 

[1] Document that would formally recognize Quebec as its own society & give power to veto changes.

 

Works Cited:

"A Brief History of the Bloc Québécois." The Globe and Mail. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. .

"Bloc Québécois." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Web. 1 Mar. 2015. .