National Assembly of Quebec

The National Assembly of Quebec (Template:Langx, ) is the legislative body of the province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; Template:Langx). The lieutenant governor of Quebec (representing the King of Canada) and the National Assembly compose the Parliament of Québec, which operates in a fashion similar to those of other Westminster-style parliamentary systems. The assembly has 125 members elected via first past the post from single-member districts.

The National Assembly was formerly the lower house of Quebec's legislature and was then called the Legislative Assembly of Quebec (Template:Langx). In 1968, the upper house, the Legislative Council, was abolished and the remaining house was renamed. The office of President of the National Assembly is equivalent to speaker in other legislatures. As of the 2022 Quebec general election, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) has the most seats in the Assembly.

History

File:Assemblée législative du Québec 1933-04-05.jpg

Quebec Legislative Assembly in 1933

The Constitutional Act 1791 created the Parliament of Lower Canada. It consisted of two chambers, the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly. That parliament and both chambers were abolished in 1841 when the Act of Union 1840 merged Upper Canada and Lower Canada into a single province named the Province of Canada. The Act of Union created a new Parliament of the Province of Canada, also composed of a Legislative Council and a Legislative Assembly. That Parliament had jurisdiction over the entire province, with members from Lower Canada and Upper Canada in both houses.

The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly known as the British North America Act), created the Dominion of Canada, and also created the provinces of Ontario and Quebec by splitting the old Province of Canada into two, based on the old boundaries of Lower Canada and Upper Canada. The act created a new bicameral Legislature for the province of Quebec, composed of the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.

In December 1955, the assembly passed a bill according the title "Member of Provincial Parliament" () and the initialism "MPP" () to members of the legislature. Previously, there had been no fixed designation, but they had often been referred to as "Members of the Legislative Assembly" (MLAs) (), which Premier Maurice Duplessis noted in his speech on the bill, "can sometimes be pronounced as '', which means 'evil' in French."

In 1961, Marie-Claire Kirkland became the first woman elected to the Legislative Assembly.

In 1968, Bill 90 was passed by the government of Premier Jean-Jacques Bertrand, abolishing the Legislative Council and renaming the Legislative Assembly the "National Assembly", in line with the more strident nationalism of the Quiet Revolution. Before 1968, there had been various unsuccessful attempts at abolishing the Legislative Council, which was analogous to the Senate of Canada. With the adoption of the new name, members of the assembly were now designated Members of the National Assembly (MNA) in English. In French, they are referred to as either with the initialism M.A.N. or as .

In 1978, television cameras were brought in for the first time to televise parliamentary debates. The colour of the walls was changed to suit the needs of television, and the (green hall) became the (blue hall).

In 1984, Canadian Forces corporal Denis Lortie stormed into the Parliament Building and opened fire, killing three government employees and wounding thirteen others. His intended target was Premier René Lévesque and his Parti Québécois government. However, he was around 15 minutes early and the Assembly floor was still mostly empty; no politicians were shot. He surrendered to police hours later.

Parliament Building

File:QuebecParlementTourny.jpg

The east of the Parliament Building

Constructed between 1877 and 1886, the Parliament Building features the Second Empire architectural style that was popular for prestigious buildings both in Europe (especially France where the style originated) and the United States during the latter 19th century.

Although somewhat more sober in appearance and lacking a towering central belfry, Quebec City's Parliament Building bears a definite likeness to the Philadelphia City Hall, another Second Empire edifice in North America which was built during the same period. Even though the building's symmetrical layout with a frontal clock tower in the middle is typical of legislative institutions of British heritage, the architectural style is believed to be unique among parliament buildings found in other Canadian provincial capitals. Its façade presents a pantheon representing significant events and people of the history of Quebec.

In 1936, Maurice Duplessis hung a crucifix in the Legislative Assembly chamber. It hung there for 83 years, until it was removed on 10 July 2019.

Additional buildings were added, adjacent to the Parliament Buildings:

• Édifice André-Laurendeau was added from 1935 to 1937 to house the Ministry of Transport.
• was added from 1922 to 1925 to house the Ministries of the Treasury (Finance), the Attorney General and the Secretary General of the National Assembly.
• Édifice Jean-Antoine-Panet was added from 1931 to 1932 for the Ministry of Agriculture.
• added from 1910 to 1915 for the Library of the National Assembly, various other government offices and for the Executive Council.

Elections

General elections are held every four years or less. Since 2014, the legislature has had a fixed four-year term, with elections taking place no later than "the first Monday of October of the fourth calendar year following the year that includes the last day of the previous Legislature." However, the lieutenant governor, acting on the advice of the premier, can dissolve the legislature and call an election earlier. Any Canadian citizen at least 18 years old who has been residing in Quebec for at least six months qualifies to be on the electoral list.

Normally, the lieutenant governor invites the leader of the political party with the largest number of elected candidates to form the government as premier ( in French; French does not make a distinction between premier and prime minister).

Quebec's territory is divided into 125 electoral districts (ridings). In each riding, the candidate who receives the most votes is elected and becomes a member of the National Assembly (MNA). This is the first-past-the-post voting system. It tends to produce strong disparities in the number of seats won compared to the popular vote, perhaps best exemplified by the 1966 (wrong-winner result), 1970 (false-majority result), 1973, and 1998 election (wrong-winner and false-majority result).

Quebec elections have also tended to be volatile since the 1970s, producing a large turnover in seats. Consequently, existing political parties often lose more than half their seats with the rise of new or opposition political parties. For instance, the 1970 and 1973 elections saw the demise of the Union Nationale and rise of the Parti Québécois, which took power in 1976. The 1985 and 1994 elections saw the Liberals gain and lose power in landslide elections. The 2018 elections saw the rise of the Coalition Avenir Québec, which took power for the first time.

Members

Current standings

Cabinet ministers are in bold, party leaders are in italic and the president of the National Assembly is marked with a †.

	Name	Party	Riding	First elected / previously elected		CAQ	Abitibi-Est	2018	Independent		CAQ	Abitibi-Ouest	2018		Liberal	Acadie	2022		CAQ	Anjou–Louis-Riel	2022		CAQ	Argenteuil	2018		PQ	Arthabaska	2025		CAQ	Beauce-Nord	2018		CAQ	Beauce-Sud	2018		CAQ	Beauharnois	2018		CAQ	Bellechasse	2018		CAQ	Berthier	2018		CAQ	Bertrand	2022		CAQ	Blainville	2014		CAQ	Bonaventure	2022		CAQ	Borduas	2014		Liberal	Bourassa-Sauvé	2022		CAQ	Brome-Missisquoi	2018		PQ	Camille-Laurin	2022		CAQ	Chambly	2014		CAQ	Champlain	2018		CAQ	Chapleau	2018		CAQ	Charlesbourg	2018		CAQ	Charlevoix–Côte-de-Beaupré	2022		CAQ	Châteauguay	2022		CAQ	Chauveau	2012,Template:Efn 2018		CAQ	Chicoutimi	2018		Liberal	Chomedey	2022		CAQ	Chutes-de-la-Chaudière	2022		CAQ	Côte-du-Sud	2022		Liberal	D'Arcy-McGee	2022		CAQ	Deux-Montagnes	2008,Template:Efn 2014		CAQ	Drummond–Bois-Francs	2007, 2012		CAQ	Dubuc	2018		CAQ	Duplessis	2022		Liberal	Fabre	2022		CAQ	Gaspé	2022		CAQ	Gatineau	2018		QS	Gouin	2017		CAQ	Granby	2007		CAQ	Groulx	2018		QS	Hochelaga-Maisonneuve	2018		CAQ	Hull	2022		CAQ	Huntingdon	2022		CAQ	Iberville	2022		PQ	Îles-de-la-Madeleine	2018		Liberal	Jacques-Cartier	2018		QS	Jean-Lesage	2018		Liberal	Jeanne-Mance–Viger	2008		PQ	Jean-Talon	2023		CAQ	Johnson	2014		CAQ	Joliette	2022		CAQ	Jonquière	2022		CAQ	Labelle	2018		CAQ	Lac-Saint-Jean	2018		Liberal	LaFontaine	2012		CAQ	La Peltrie	2007		Liberal	La Pinière	2022		CAQ	Laporte	2022	Independent		CAQ	La Prairie	2012,Template:Efn 2018		CAQ	L'Assomption	1998,Template:Efn 2012		QS	Laurier-Dorion	2018		CAQ	Laval-des-Rapides	2022		CAQ	Laviolette–Saint-Maurice	2018		CAQ	Les Plaines	2018		CAQ	Lévis	2007,Template:Efn 2022		CAQ	Lotbinière-Frontenac	2018		CAQ	Louis-Hébert	2017		Liberal	Marguerite-Bourgeoys	2022		CAQ	Marie-Victorin	2022		Liberal	Marquette	2018		CAQ	Maskinongé	2018		CAQ	Masson	2014		PQ	Matane-Matapédia	2007		QS	Maurice-Richard	2022		CAQ	Mégantic	2018		QS	Mercier	2018		Liberal	Mille-Îles	2022		CAQ	Mirabel	2014	†	CAQ	Montarville	2012		CAQ	Montmorency	1998,Template:Efn 2018		Liberal	Mont-Royal–Outremont	2022		Liberal	Nelligan	2018		CAQ	Nicolet-Bécancour	2012		Liberal	Notre-Dame-de-Grâce	2022		CAQ	Orford	2018		CAQ	Papineau	2018		CAQ	Pointe-aux-Trembles	2018		Liberal	Pontiac	2014		CAQ	Portneuf	2018		CAQ	Prévost	2022		CAQ	René-Lévesque	2022		CAQ	Repentigny	2022		CAQ	Richelieu	2018		CAQ	Richmond	2018		CAQ	Rimouski	2022	Independent		CAQ	Rivière-du-Loup–Témiscouata	2022		Liberal	Robert-Baldwin	2022		CAQ	Roberval	2018		QS	Rosemont	2018		CAQ	Rousseau	2018		CAQ	Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue	2003,Template:Efn 2008,Template:Efn 2022		CAQ	Saint-François	2018		QS	Saint-Henri–Sainte-Anne	2023		CAQ	Saint-Hyacinthe	2014		CAQ	Saint-Jean	2018		CAQ	Saint-Jérôme	2018	Independent		Liberal	Saint-Laurent	2018	Independent		QS	Sainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques	2014		CAQ	Sainte-Rose	2018		CAQ	Sanguinet	2022		QS	Sherbrooke	2018		CAQ	Soulanges	2018		CAQ	Taillon	2018	Independent		QS	Taschereau	2022		PQ	Terrebonne	2025		CAQ	Trois-Rivières	2018		CAQ	Ungava	2018		CAQ	Vachon	2018		CAQ	Vanier-Les Rivières	2018		Liberal	Vaudreuil	2014		CAQ	Verchères	2022		QS	Verdun	2022		Liberal	Viau	2018		CAQ	Vimont	2022		Liberal	Westmount–Saint-Louis	2018

Changes during the 43rd Quebec Legislature

{{#section:43rd Quebec Legislature|standings}}

Proceedings

One of the members of the National Assembly is elected as President of the Assembly (a post called speaker in most other Westminster System assemblies). Any member of the assembly is eligible to stand for election, other than party leaders and Cabinet ministers. The election is the first order of business for a newly elected assembly. It is conducted by secret ballot of all members, with successive rounds of voting if needed before one candidate gains a majority of the votes.

The president of the assembly is the arbiter of the parliamentary debates between the members of the government and the members of the Opposition. In order for a member to address the assembly, the member speak through the president. The president is usually a member of the governing party.

The proceedings of the National Assembly are broadcast across Quebec on the cable television network Canal de l'Assemblée nationale.

See also

• Executive Council of Quebec
• List of Quebec general elections
• List of Québec Legislatures
• List of Quebec premiers
• List of Quebec leaders of the Opposition
• Politics of Quebec
• Timeline of Quebec history

References

Bibliography

• Assemblé nationale du Québec (2000). What is the National Assembly?, Québec: Assemblée nationale, 58 p. (Template:ISBN)
• Deschênes, Gaston (1983). The Assemblée nationale: Its Organization and Parliamentary Procedure, Québec: Assemblée nationale, 53 p. (Template:ISBN) [1st ed. in 1977]

External links

• National Assembly of Quebec website
• National Assembly historical data Template:In lang
• Diagram of the positions in the Assembly Template:In lang
• Data about the current president of the Assembly