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Union Nationale defeats Lesage's Quebec Liberals

Broadcast Date: June 12, 1966

Jean Lesage's Liberal party had fully expected to win another term after the 1966 Quebec election. Instead, Quebecers elected Daniel Johnson of the conservative Union Nationale as their new premier. "I think it was a surprise for everybody," says one woman interviewed in this radio clip. A week after the June 5 election, CBC's Sunday Morning Magazine is asking some tough questions. Where did Lesage go wrong? What did Johnson do right? And what will these results mean for Quebec's future?

Union Nationale defeats Lesage's Quebec Liberals

• Johnson's Union Nationale won the most seats in the June 5 election, with a final count of 56 seats compared to the Liberals' 50 seats. (Note: the final count was slightly different from the results mentioned in this clip.) This gave them a slim majority in the 108-seat legislative assembly. Despite their loss, Lesage's Liberals actually had a greater percentage of the popular vote. The Liberal party had 47.3 per cent of all votes while the Union Nationale had only 40.8 per cent.

• During the 1960s, Quebec underwent a period of rapid social and political change that became known as the Quiet Revolution. It began with the 1960 election of Lesage's Liberals – an election that marked the end of a 16-year reign of the traditional, extremely conservative Union Nationale party. (For more on the period preceding the Quiet Revolution, see the topic Maurice Duplessis.)

• As part of the Quiet Revolution, the Liberals introduced sweeping changes in areas such as education, health care and labour. But Lesage's 1966 election loss was partly blamed on his inability to convince the population of the merits of those changes. "In a democracy where the military cannot be used to keep the people in line, the people must be sold on the idea that the revolution belongs to them. Mr. Lesage forgot to sell," explained a June 7, 1966, Globe and Mail editorial.

• The educational reforms were particularly vexing to many Québécois. School restructuring resulted in numerous students being bused outside of their neighbourhoods, which meant they couldn't come home for lunch. Many rural Québécois saw such changes as a threat to family unity. Lesage "believed that his program was in the best interest of Quebec – and he was probably right – but he did not convince the farmers that their children should bus 20 miles to and from school," said the June 7 Globe and Mail editorial.

• As the Liberals pursued their social, economic and political reforms between 1960 and 1966, Johnson was making efforts to re-invigorate the Union Nationale. He brought younger people into the party. He also had regional and national meetings to work on defining "a programme more in tune with the times," according to historian Claude Bélanger. "Johnson worked incessantly in the trenches trying to regain the old support of the party," wrote Bélanger in a short online biography of Johnson.

• Many Québécois saw the 1966 election as the end of the Quiet Revolution. But once in office, Johnson did continue with numerous Quiet Revolution reforms, albeit in a much slower and less aggressive fashion. He followed through with many of the educational plans, including the establishment of the CEGEP (Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel) system – Quebec's post-secondary, pre-university school system – in 1967. However, some reforms were dropped completely, including a massive program the Liberals had planned to re-organize Quebec municipalities.

• This was the last election the Union Nationale would win. Daniel Johnson died in 1968 while in office, and was succeeded by Jean-Jacques Bertrand. In the 1970 election, the Liberals won a majority again under Robert Bourassa while the Union Nationale won only 17 seats. The party didn't win any seats in the 1973 election, and never again had a significant presence in Quebec politics. In 1989, the Union Nationale was deregistered as a political party.

• Pierre-Marc Johnson, Daniel Johnson Sr.'s son, was premier of Quebec representing the Parti Québécois for a brief period in 1985. Daniel Johnson Jr. was Liberal premier of Quebec from January to September 1994.

• For more on the history of elections in Quebec, see the topic Quebec Elections: 1960-1998.

Union Nationale defeats Lesage's Quebec Liberals

Medium: Radio

Program: Sunday Morning Magazine

Broadcast Date: June 12, 1966

Guest(s): Pierre Bourgault, Frank Hanley, Daniel Johnson, Claire Kirkland-Casgrain, Jean Lesage, René Lévesque, Herbert Quinn

Duration: 13:23

Last updated:
June 2, 2008