Union Nationale (Quebec)

The Union nationale (French pronunciation: [ynjɔ̃ nɑsjɔnal]) was a conservative and nationalist provincial political party in Quebec, Canada, that identified with Québécois autonomism. It was created during the Great Depression and held power in Quebec from 1936 to 1939, from 1944 to 1960 and from 1966 to 1970. The party was founded by Maurice Duplessis, who led it until his death in 1959.

The party was often referred to in English as the National Union, especially when it was still an electoral force, by both the media and, at times, the party.

The party started when the Action libérale nationale, a group of dissidents from the Quebec Liberal Party, formed a loose coalition with the Conservative Party of Quebec. In the 1935 Quebec election, the two parties agreed to run only one candidate of either party in each riding. The Action libérale nationale (ALN) elected 26 out of 57 candidates and the Conservatives won 16 seats out of 33 districts.

Conservative leader Maurice Duplessis became Leader of the Opposition. He soon rose to prominence as he used the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to expose the corrupt practices of the Liberal government of Alexandre Taschereau and force it to call an early election.

Capitalizing on his success, Duplessis called a caucus meeting at Sherbrooke's Magog Hotel and received the support of 15 Conservatives and 22 ALN members in favour of a merger of the two parties under his leadership under the name Union nationale.

The new party had no formal ties to the federal Conservatives. It ran candidates in every district and won a majority of the seats in the 1936 election.

Even though Duplessis had run on ideas inspired from the ALN platform, he soon alienated the more progressive members of his caucus. René Chaloult, Oscar Drouin, Joseph-Ernest Grégoire, Philippe Hamel, François Leduc and Adolphe Marcoux quit the party, while Rouville Beaudry and Grégoire Bélanger left politics.

The government adopted a farm credit policy in 1936, which was popular in rural areas where the party's most loyal base of supporters lived, but for the most part the administration of Maurice Duplessis protected the status quo. For instance, it gave the Catholic clergy government money to provide public education, health care and other social services.