Equality Party (Quebec)

Equality Party Parti Égalité
Founded	April 7, 1989 (1989-04-07)
Headquarters	Montreal West, Quebec
Ideology	Quebec Anglophone rights, Quebec federalist ideology, Canadian nationalism
Official colours	Navy blue and red (unofficial)
Politics of Quebec Political parties Elections

The Equality Party (French: Parti Égalité) was a political party in Quebec, Canada, that promoted the use of English in Quebec on an equal basis with French. Four Equality Party members were elected to Quebec's National Assembly in 1989, as part of an anglophone reaction to changes made by the governing Liberals to Quebec's language law. The party had no success in subsequent elections, and has not run candidates for office since the 2003 Quebec election.

History

Foundation to 1989 election

The party was formed in 1989 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 court ruling would have allowed languages other than French to appear on store signs and outdoor advertising; the government instead allowed other languages only on small signs inside shops. Another issue that fed Equality Party support was the Quebec Liberal Party's forcing anglophone Members of the Quebec National Assembly (MNAs) to condemn a report from the Official Languages Commissioner suggesting Quebec anglophones felt "humiliated" by laws such as Bill 101.

The Equality Party's platform called for equality of both languages (French and English) in Quebec, opposing Bill 101 which made French the sole official language of Quebec, imposed restrictions on the use of English on public signs, and required children to attend school in French unless one of their parents went to school in English in Canada. 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.

The party first came to prominence in the 1989 general election, when it won four seats on Montreal Island in the National Assembly with 3.7% of the popular vote. Along with its then-sister party, the Unity Party (which ran candidates outside the Montreal Island), it won 4.7% of the provincial popular vote. The winning candidates were Gordon Atkinson, Neil Cameron, Richard Holden and party leader Robert Libman, who won popular votes ranging from 41 per cent to 58 percent in their respective ridings.

In the National Assembly 1989-1994

The party did not receive official party status in Quebec's National Assembly, being eight members short of the required twelve necessary for recognition. The four members nonetheless participated in National Assembly debates, notably:

• Party leader Robert Libman made headlines by using his Parliamentary privilege to reveal the details of confidential, money-losing contracts signed between Hydro-Québec and some of Quebec's aluminum producers.
• The party voted against Bill 150, a law providing for a referendum on sovereignty for Quebec, (which was later cancelled in favour of a referendum on the Charlottetown Accord).

The Unity Party merged with the Equality Party on May 7, 1990, increasing the party's membership to what the party reported as 16,000.. The party's published financial statements, however, reported that only $7795 in membership dues were collected in 1990, down 75% from 1989 and enough to account for only 1,559 dues-paying members.

From 1990 onward, the party suffered from frequent and public infighting, clashing over personalities and over issues such as whether to support the Meech Lake Accord and Charlottetown Accord. Three of its four elected members, including the party's leader, quit the party before the next election. 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.

Along with the infighting, defections and change in leadership, other events occurred which may have contributed to a loss of voter support for the Equality Party:

• The government amended the Charter of the French Language in 1993 to allow for more English on commercial signs, which had been the main issue on which the Equality Party campaigned in 1989.
• Opinion polls prior to the 1994 election showed a close race between the two largest parties (the Liberals and the Parti Québécois), giving voters less of a reason to vote for a third party.

1994 election loss to present

The Equality Party 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.

The party's remaining members held meetings, maintained a website and ran candidates for office until 2003. During these years, the party promoted political positions such as:

• that a unilateral declaration of independence by Quebec would be unconstitutional (a debate ultimately leading to the federal Clarity Act)
• the partition of Quebec if it ever became independent
• the reversal of the 2002 municipal mergers on the island of Montreal

Additionally, after 1994 most of its remaining members became active in Alliance Quebec.

Following the party's poor showing in the 2003 election, its leader, Keith Henderson, announced he would resign once a new leader was chosen. No leadership candidates came forward, so Henderson technically remains the leader of the party. After Henderson's announcement, the party stopped holding meetings and no longer updated its website. It did not run any candidates in the 2007 general election or the 2008 general election. However, Henderson still continues to keep the party's registration as an official party up to date.

The party's annual declarations show it to have the fewest members of any political party in Quebec, with 11 members paying the $5 membership fee in 2007, three members in 2008 and five members in 2009. The party collected no money in membership fees in 2010.

Leaders

• Robert Libman (1989–1994)
• Keith Henderson (1994-)

Members of the Quebec National Assembly

• Gordon Atkinson (1989–1994)
• Neil Cameron (1989–1994)
• Robert Libman (1989–1994)
• Richard Holden (1989–1992)

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%
2007	0	-	----
2008	0	-	----

See also

• Politics of Quebec
• List of Quebec general elections
• List of Quebec premiers
• List of Quebec leaders of the Opposition
• National Assembly of Quebec
• Timeline of Quebec history
• Political parties in Quebec
• Partition of Quebec

External links

• Equality Party website (No longer working as of 23 June 2006)
• Equality Party website (from archive.org)
• National Assembly historical information
• History of the Equality Party quebecpolitique.com
• Bill 199 Charter of the French and English Languages