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Parti Québécois leadership election, 1985

Parti Québécois leadership election, 1985
Quebec
← 1968 29 September 1985 1988 →
  Photographie officielle de Pauline Marois.png Jean Garon 2013-04-13 B.jpg
Candidate Pierre-Marc Johnson Pauline Marois Jean Garon
Party Parti Québécois Parti Québécois Parti Québécois
Popular Vote 56,925 19,471 15,730
Percentage 58.7% 19.7% 16.2%

  FrancineLalonde2007.jpg
Candidate Guy Bertrand Francine Lalonde Luc Gagnon
Party Parti Québécois Parti Québécois Parti Québécois
Popular Vote 2,733 1,484 1,046
Percentage 2.8% 1.5% 1.1%

Leader before election

René Lévesque

Elected Leader

Pierre-Marc Johnson


René Lévesque

Pierre-Marc Johnson

The Parti Québécois leadership election of 1985 was held to elect a new leader of the Parti Québécois, the main sovereigntist and social democratic political party in Quebec, Canada. It elected Pierre-Marc Johnson at the helm of the party. It was conducted under the one member, one vote universal suffrage system, making the Parti Québécois the first political party to do so in Quebec history. It was the first race of its kind in the history of the party, created in 1968, and would be followed by the leadership election of 2005.

The election was caused by the departure of founder René Lévesque, and was conducted while the party was in power. With Pierre-Marc Johnson elected, he would assume premiership from October to December 1985. Johnson afterwards played the role of Leader of the Opposition until 1987.

The election finds its historical importance in the fact that, in the first era of said "Post-Referendum Syndrome", the election of Pierre-Marc Johnson secured the party's past decision of putting the independence project, the first of the PQ, on the back burner. This decision had caused a crisis within party ranks (see Parti Québécois), which was influential in the departure of René Lévesque. This party stance of affirmation nationale (Johnson's approach of nationalism without actively pursuing the objective of sovereignty) would last until the ousting of Johnson and the arrival of Jacques Parizeau as leader in 1988.


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