A number of candidates have run as Nationalists. These groups did not necessarily have anything to do with one another other than the use of the word "national".
In Quebec, nationalism historically referred to advocacy of French-language rights, the Catholic religion (prior to the Quiet Revolution), and greater provincial powers with respect to the federal government. At the provincial level, there was Honoré Mercier's Parti national in the 1880s (in effect, this was the same as the Parti libéral du Québec, and soon changed its name accordingly). In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Maurice Duplessis's Union nationale was a major political force that dominated provincial elections. Note in French in Quebec, the word national is often used to refer to Quebec-wide, rather than Canada-wide, institutions (for instance, the National Assembly of Quebec is the province's legislative assembly).
At the federal level, Quebec political parties also used the word "national" and "nationalist", although once again, the meaning is not the same as in English.
In the 1887 election, six candidates aligned with the Liberal Party of Canada ran in Quebec as Nationalist candidates though only one, Guillaume Amyot , (a former supporter of the Conservatives who latterly became a Nationalist Conservative) was elected. The Nationalist label was used occasionally by Liberal supporters until 1912.
Another prominent nationalist in Quebec was Henri Bourassa though he, himself, never sat as a Nationalist MP but as a Liberal or Independent.
Other candidates have used the word "Nationalist" for the names of their political parties, but none were particularly well known or successful.
There was also the fascist Adrien Arcand, who created the Christian National Socialist Party at the provincial level in Quebec by obvious analogy with the National Socialist (Nazi) Party of Hitler's Germany, and he also created the "National Unity Party of Canada" at the federal level. Neither party was ever elected to office.
See also:
Last updated: 05-13-2005 04:30:49
