Xrthnty

Assemblée nationale du Québec National Assembly of Quebec
42nd Quebec Legislature
Type
Type	Unicameral house of the Quebec Legislature
History
Founded	December 31, 1968 (1968-12-31)
Preceded by	Legislative Assembly of Quebec
Leadership
Lieutenant Governor	J. Michel Doyon Since 24 September 2015
President	François Paradis Since October 18, 2018
Premier	François Legault, CAQ Since October 18, 2018
Government House Leader	Simon Jolin-Barrette, CAQ Since October 18, 2018
Opposition Leader	Pierre Arcand, QLP Since October 18, 2018
Opposition House Leader	Sébastien Proulx, QLP Since October 18, 2018
Structure
Seats	125 members of Assembly
Political groups	Government   CAQ (74) Official Opposition   PLQ (29) Other Parties   PQ (10)   QS (10)   Independent (1)   Vacant (1)
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
Last election	October 1, 2018
Next election	2022 or earlier
Meeting place
Parliament Building, Quebec City, Quebec
Website
www.assnat.qc.ca

The National Assembly of Quebec (French: Assemblée nationale du Québec) is the legislative body of the province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; French: députés). The Queen in Right of Quebec, represented by the Lieutenant Governor of Quebec^[1] and the National Assembly compose the Legislature of Quebec, which operates in a fashion similar to those of other Westminster-style parliamentary systems.

The National Assembly was formerly the lower house of Quebec's legislature and was then called the Legislative Assembly of Quebec. In 1968, the upper house, the Legislative Council, was abolished and the remaining house was renamed.

The office of President of the National Assembly (equivalent to speaker in other legislatures) is currently vacant after the dissolution of the 41st Legislature. The Coalition Avenir Québec has the most seats in the Assembly following the Quebec general election, 2018.

History

The Legislative Assembly was created in Lower Canada by the Constitutional Act of 1791. It was abolished from 1841 to 1867 under the 1840 Act of Union, which merged Upper Canada and Lower Canada into a single colony named the Province of Canada.

The Constitution Act, 1867 (formerly the British North America Act), which created Canada, split the Province of Canada into the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada was thus restored as the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Quebec.

The original Quebec legislature was bicameral, consisting of the Legislative Council and 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.

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 salon vert (green hall) became the salon bleu (blue hall).

Parliament Building

The Fontaine de Tourny east of the Parliament Building

Constructed between 1877 and 1886, the Parliament Building features the Second Empire architectural style^[2] 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.^{[citation needed]} Its facade presents a pantheon representing significant events and people of the history of Quebec.

Additional buildings were added next to the Parliament Buildings:

• 
  Édifice André-Laurendeau was added from 1935 to 1937 to house the Ministry of Transport.


• Édifice Honoré-Mercier was added from 1922 to 1925 to house the Ministries of the Treasury (Finances), 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.


• Édifice Pamphile-Le May 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 five years or less. Any person holding Canadian citizenship and who has resided in Quebec for at least six months qualifies to be on the electoral list.

Normally, the leader of the political party with the largest number of elected candidates is asked by the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec to form the government as premier. (In French, it is rendered as premier ministre. The term "prime minister" is commonly used by the government as a literal translation of the French term. In the other Canadian Provinces, the head of government are referred to in English as "premier". The title is similarly rendered "premier ministre" in French, too. The term literally means "First Minister". When used in the plural, "First Ministers" in Canada refers collectively to the Provincial Premiers and the Prime Minister of Canada).

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 known as 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, 1970, 1973, and 1998 elections.

Quebec elections have also tended to be volatile since the 1970s, producing a large turnover in Assembly 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 saw the demise of the Union Nationale and rise of the Parti Québécois which managed to take power in 1976. The 1985 and 1994 elections saw the Liberals gain and lose power in landslide elections.

Members

Current standings

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

Seating Plan

Members of the National Assembly (MNAs) swear two oaths: one to the Canadian monarch as Quebec’s head of state, and a second one to the people of Quebec. Previous Parti Québécois premier René Lévesque added the second oath.^[3]

Most recent election

e • d Summary of the National Assembly of Quebec election results (October 1, 2018)^[4]

Political party[5]		Party leader	MPPs					Votes
			Candidates	2014	Dissol.	2018	±	#	±	%	± (pp)
	Coalition Avenir Québec	François Legault	125	22	21	74	53	1,509,455	533,848	37.42	14.37
	Liberal	Philippe Couillard	125	70	68	31	37	1,001,037	756,034	24.82	16.70
	Parti Québécois	Jean-François Lisée	125	30	28	10	18	687,995	386,125	17.06	8.32
	Québec solidaire	Manon Massé, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois	125	3	3	10	7	649,503	326,379	16.10	8.47
	Independent		21	–	5	–	5	6,462	8,899	0.16	0.20
	Green	Alex Tyrrell	97	–	–	–	–	67,870	44,707	1.68	1.13
	Conservative	Adrien Pouliot	101	–	–	–	–	59,055	42,626	1.46	1.07
	New Democratic	Raphaël Fortin	59	–	–	–	–	22,863	New	0.57	New
	Citoyens au pouvoir du Québec	Stéphane Blais (intérim)	56	–	–	–	–	13,768	12,477	0.34	0.31
	Bloc Pot	Jean-Patrick Berthiaume	29	–	–	–	–	4,657	1,967	0.12	0.06
	Parti nul	Renaud Blais	16	–	–	–	–	3,659	3,880	0.09	0.03
	Marxist–Leninist	Pierre Chénier	25	–	–	–	–	1,708	308	0.04	0.01
	Parti libre	Michel Leclerc	8	–	–	–	–	1,678	New	0.04	New
	Équipe autonomiste	Stéphane Pouleur	12	–	–	–	–	1,138	738	0.03	0.02
	Parti 51	Hans Mercier	5	–	–	–	–	1,117	New	0.03	New
	Changement intégrité pour notre Québec	Eric Emond	7	–	–	–	–	693	New	0.02	New
	Alliance provinciale	Sébastien Roy	2	–	–	–	–	521	New	0.01	New
	Voie du peuple	Marc Alarie	1	–	–	–	–	190	New	–	New
	Parti culinaire	Jean-Louis Thémistocle	1	–	–	–	–	169	New	–	New
	Option nationale	n/a						Merged with QS			0.73
	Parti équitable	Patricia Domingos	–	–	–	–	–	Did not campaign			0.04
	Mon pays le Québec	n/a						Party dissolved			0.01
	Unité Nationale	n/a						Party dissolved			0.01
	Quebec – Democratic Revolution	n/a						Party dissolved			–
	Parti indépendantiste	n/a						Party dissolved			–
	Quebec Citizens' Union	n/a						Party dissolved			–
Total			940	125	125	125		4,033,538	198,724
Rejected ballots								66,085	3,292
Voter turnout								4,099,623	195,432	66.45%	4.99
Registered electors								6,169,772	157,282

Changes during the 42nd Quebec Legislature

Proceedings

One of the members of the National Assembly is chosen as the President of the Assembly (a post called Speaker in most other Westminster System assemblies) by the Premier with the support of the Leader of the Opposition. 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 a member of the other side, he or she has to speak through the President of the Assembly. The President is usually a member of the governing party, although there is no requirement for this.

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 Quebec premiers


• List of Quebec leaders of the Opposition


• Politics of Quebec


• Timeline of Quebec history

References

Specific

Bibliography

• Assemblé nationale du Québec (2000). What is the National Assembly?, Québec: Assemblée nationale, 58 p. (
  ISBN 2-550-30165-X)


• Deschênes, Gaston (1983). The Assemblée nationale: Its Organization and Parliamentary Procedure, Québec: Assemblée nationale, 53 p. (
  ISBN 2551047595) [1st ed. in 1977]

External links

• 
  National Assembly of Quebec website (in English)
  


• 
  National Assembly historical data (in French)
  


• 
  Diagram of the positions in the Assembly (in French)
  


• Data about the current president of the Assembly