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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.
History
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.
However, it never repeated this success. 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 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 platform calls 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.
Leaders of the Equality Party
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% |
See also
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