Signing up enhances your TCE experience with the ability to save items to your personal reading list, and access the interactive map.
Create AccountSpanning 3 centuries and 2 legal cultures, the Taschereau family perpetuated itself, along with several other groups, as a core constituent in Québec's law-making institutions.
The Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste (SSJB), founded in Montréal in 1834 by Ludger Duvernay, is the oldest patriotic association in French North America. With branches at one time located throughout the continent, it has long been engaged in fighting the linguistic and identity battles of francophones in North America. Since the 1960s, the SSJB network has played a crucial role in developing and defining contemporary Québec nationalism.
A think tank is an interdisciplinary body of experts such as scholars or former politicians that crafts opinions on regional, national or international policy and strategic direction, typically related to areas such as commerce, the military, immigration or social welfare.
Founded in 1982 and disbanded in 2005, this advocacy group defended the interests of English-speaking Quebecers for over 20 years.
Defence research, initiation and development of weapons or technologies likely to be useful in national defence, is a comparatively recent phenomenon in Canada.
Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) is a Québec political party founded in 2011 by Charles Sirois and François Legault, former Parti Québécois (PQ) member of the National Assembly (MNA) and cabinet minister. A centre-right political party, the CAQ merged with the Action démocratique du Québec (ADQ) in 2012. The 1 October election results allowed the Coalition Avenir Québec to form a majority government.
Québec solidaire is a progressive, left-wing provincial political party officially formed on 4 February 2006 in Montreal. Its key principles and values are the environment, social justice, feminism, alter-globalization, democracy, pluralism, sovereignty and solidarity. After four general elections, Québec solidaire has elected three members to the National Assembly of Quebec and is the fourth largest party. Since May 2017, its parliamentary spokespersons are Manon Massé and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.
The Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) was a branch of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada with a focus on Western Canada. It was headquartered in Regina, Saskatchewan. The PFRA also had 22 district offices throughout the Prairie provinces. The agency began in response to the drought crisis of the 1930s in the Prairies. However, for nearly eight decades, it continued to help farmers conserve soil, prevent erosion, develop water resources and manage pasture land.
The World Sikh Organization (WSO) of Canada is a non-profit organization. As an advocate for human rights in Canada, Punjab and around the world, WSO Canada has been involved in several significant court cases. This has helped develop Canadian human rights laws and customs.
The Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau, founded as the Exhibits and Publicity Bureau in 1918, was the first national film production unit in the world. Its purpose was to produce films that promoted Canadian trade and industry. As the minister of Trade and Commerce put it in 1924, the Bureau “was established for the purpose of advertising abroad Canada’s scenic attractions, agricultural resources and industrial development.” However, the Bureau failed to keep up with technology and was severely hampered by financial difficulties during the Depression. It was absorbed into the National Film Board (NFB) in 1941.
The Saskatchewan Party is a provincial political party formed in 1997 by a coalition of Liberals and Progressive Conservatives seeking to offer a viable governing alternative to the New Democratic Party (NDP). Since 2007, the Saskatchewan Party has won three straight elections, holding power in the province under leader and Premier Brad Wall. In 2018, Wall stepped down and was replaced as premier and party leader by Scott Moe, who served in Wall’s executive council from 2014 to 2017.
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is an independent public organization that regulates and supervises broadcasting and telecommunications systems in Canada.
The Union Nationale was a Québec political party founded in 1935 and dissolved in 1989. The party won six provincial elections between 1936 and 1966.
The Baldwin–LaFontaine government of 1848 has been called the “great ministry.” In addition to establishing responsible government, it had an incomparable record of legislation. It established a public school system and finalized the founding of the University of Toronto. It set up municipal governments and pacified French-Canadian nationalism after a period of unrest. Responsible government did not transform Canada overnight into a fully developed democracy. But it was an important milestone along the road to political autonomy. Most importantly, it provided an opportunity for French Canadians to find a means for their survival through the British Constitution. The partnership and friendship between Baldwin and LaFontaine were brilliant examples of collaboration that have been all too rare in Canadian history.
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW) is a feminist, non-partisan, non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1960. The organization opposes violence and war and promotes nuclear disarmament, peace and social justice. It does so through education, advocacy and strengthening the voices of women. Famous members include politician Thérèse Casgrain, activist Grace Hartman and physicist Ursula Franklin.
The Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) was a militant Quebec independence movement that used terrorism to try and achieve an independent and socialist Quebec. FLQ members — or felquistes — were responsible for more than 200 bombings and dozens of robberies between 1963 and 1970 that left six people dead. Their actions culminated in the kidnapping of British trade commissioner James Cross and the kidnapping and subsequent murder of Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte, in what became known as the October Crisis.
Political activism among Indigenous people in Canada since the late 19th century has largely reflected attempts to organize political associations beyond the band level to pursue common interests. In the wake of persistent criticism of the federal government’s proposed “White Paper” policy (1969), major Indigenous organizations, most notably the Assembly of First Nations, gained political recognition and became established players on the national scene. These organizations were joined in 2012 by the national movement Idle No More.
This article describes Indigenous political organization as it relates to Canadian federal, provincial or territorial political bodies, not the political structures of specific Indigenous communities, which often predate interaction with Europeans and subsequent colonial infrastructure.
The Communist Party of Canada, founded in 1924 as the Canadian branch of the international Communist movement, is a fringe political party that advocates for a pure socialist society based on the ideas of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx.
The Liberal Party is both the oldest political party in Quebec and the party that has been in power most often in the province’s history. The party was at the forefront of the Quiet Revolution in the early 1960s. It supports federalism and promotes economic development in the province. The current leader of the Quebec Liberal Party is Dominique Anglade.
The Green Party of Canada is a federal political party that advocates environmentalism as the key to a sustainable society. Annamie Paul was elected in 2020 to become the party’s leader, replacing Elizabeth May. Paul became the first Black Canadian and the first Jewish Canadian woman to permanently lead a federal political party. She resigned as leader after the party’s poor performance in the September 2021 federal election.
Two Green Party candidates were elected to the House of Commons in the 2021 election. (See Member of Parliament.)
