Equality Party (Quebec)

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The Equality Party (French: Parti Égalité) is a political party in Quebec, Canada, that promotes the use of English in Quebec on an equal basis with French.

1 History
2 Leaders of the Equality Party
3 Election results
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

The party was formed as a reaction to then-Premier Robert Bourassa invoking the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution to override a Supreme Court ruling overturning parts of the Charter of the French Language (commonly known as "Bill 101").

The party first came to prominence in the 1989 general election, when it won four seats of the Montreal Island in the National Assembly. Along with its then sister party, the Unity Party (which ran candidates outside the Montreal Island), it won 4.7% of the popular vote. The party platform called for equality of both languages (French and English) in Quebec, opposing Bill 101 which made French the sole official language of Quebec and imposed restrictions on the use of English on public signs. The Equality Party drew virtually all of its support from elements of Quebec's anglophone minority, and only ran candidates in electoral districts with very high anglophone populations.

Internal divisiveness proved to be the party's downfall. In a bizarre turn of events, one of the party's sitting members, Richard Holden, member for the Westmount electoral district, defected to the ideologically diametrically opposed Parti Québécois.

It never repeated its electoral success of 1989. All of the party's candidates and incumbents were defeated in the 1994 general election, and the party was reduced to marginal status. Two subsequent general elections in 1998 and 2003 did nothing to improve the party's fortunes.

Following the party's poor showing in the 2003 election, its leader, Keith Henderson, resigned. No new leader was chosen, and the party appears to have ceased activity. If it fails to run candidates in the next Quebec provincial election, which must be held by April 2008, it will be deregistered as an official political party.

[edit] Leaders of the Equality Party

Robert Libman (1989-1993)
Keith Henderson (1994-2003)

[edit] Election results

General election	# of candidates	# of elected candidates	% of popular vote
1989	19	4	3.69%
1994	17	0	0.29%
1998	24	0	0.31%
2003	21	0	0.11%