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| Affiliation | Equality |
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| Name | Parti Égalité |
| Address |
, Québec , Canada |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
Unknown |
| Died |
Still Living
(2024 years) |
| Contributor | Monsieur |
| Last Modifed | Monsieur
Feb 19, 2007 11:27am |
| Tags |
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| Info | 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.
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, announced his resignation effective once a new leader was chosen. No leadership contest was ever held, and the party appears to have ceased activity. It continues to maintain its status as an officially registered party, declaring only $295 in membership fees collected for 2005 (translating into 59 members at $5 per member). If it fails to run candidates in the next election for Quebec's National Assembly, widely expected to be held on March 26, 2007, it may lose its status as an official party.
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