The 1970 Quebec general election was held on April 29, 1970, to elect members of the
National Assembly of Quebec
The National Assembly of Quebec (officially in french: link=no, Assemblée nationale du Québec) is the legislative body of the province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; french: link=no, déput ...
. The former Legislative Assembly had been renamed the "National Assembly" in 1968. The
Quebec Liberal Party, led by
Robert Bourassa, defeated the incumbent
Union Nationale, led by Premier
Jean-Jacques Bertrand.
This election marked the first appearance by a new party, the sovereigntist
Parti Québécois
The Parti Québécois (; ; PQ) is a Quebec sovereignty movement, sovereignist and social democracy, social democratic provincial list of political parties in Quebec, political party in Quebec, Canada. The PQ advocates Quebec sovereignty movement ...
, led by former Liberal cabinet minister
René Lévesque. The PQ won a modest seven seats, although Lévesque was defeated in his own riding.
Only a few months after the election, Quebec faced a severe test with the
October Crisis, in which Liberal cabinet minister
Pierre Laporte was kidnapped and assassinated by the
Front de libération du Québec, a violent pro-independence group.
The Union Nationale, which had governed Quebec through most of the 1940s and 1950s, would never come close to winning power again. This was partly because a significant number of the Union Nationale's younger supporters had embraced sovereigntism and shifted their support to the PQ.
Results
Note:
Results change is compared to the combined totals of the ''
Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale'' and ''
Ralliement national'' from previous election.
* Party did not nominate candidates in the previous election.
See also
*
List of Quebec premiers
This is a list of the premiers of the province of Quebec since Canadian Confederation in 1867. Quebec uses a unicameral (originally bicameral) Westminster-style parliamentary government, in which the premier is the leader of the party that c ...
*
Politics of Quebec
The politics of Quebec are centred on a provincial government resembling that of the other Canadian provinces, namely a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. The capital of Quebec is Quebec City, where the Lieutenant Governor, Pr ...
*
Timeline of Quebec history
This article presents a detailed timeline of Quebec history. Events taking place outside Quebec, for example in English Canada, the United States, Britain or France, may be included when they are considered to have had a significant impact on Qu ...
*
List of Quebec political parties
*
29th National Assembly of Quebec
The 29th National Assembly of Quebec was the provincial legislature in Quebec, Canada that was elected in the 1970 Quebec general election. It sat for four sessions, from 9 June 1970 to 19 December 1970; from 23 February 1971 to 24 December 1971; ...
*
New Democratic Party of Quebec candidates, 1970 Quebec provincial election
Further reading
*
External links
CBC TV video clip
{{Quebec elections
Quebec general election
Elections in Quebec
General election
A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
Quebec general election