National Assembly of Quebec


The National Assembly of Quebec is the legislative body of the province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs. The lieutenant governor of Quebec 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. 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 has the most seats in the Assembly.

History

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, 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" , which Premier Maurice Duplessis noted in his speech on the bill, "can sometimes be pronounced as 'mal', 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 in English. In French, they are referred to as either membre de l'Assemblée nationale with the initialism M.A.N. or as députés de l'Assemblée nationale du Québec.
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 became the salon bleu.
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

Constructed between 1877 and 1886, the Parliament Building features the Second Empire architectural style that was popular for prestigious buildings both in Europe 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:
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.
Quebec's territory is divided into 125 electoral districts. In each riding, the candidate who receives the most votes is elected and becomes a member of the National Assembly. 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, 1970, 1973, and 1998 election.
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 †.
NamePartyRidingFirst elected / previously elected
CAQAbitibi-Est2018
Independent
CAQAbitibi-Ouest2018
LiberalAcadie2022
CAQAnjou–Louis-Riel2022
CAQArgenteuil2018
PQArthabaska2025
CAQBeauce-Nord2018
CAQBeauce-Sud2018
CAQBeauharnois2018
CAQBellechasse2018
'CAQBerthier2018
'CAQBertrand2022
'CAQBlainville2014
CAQBonaventure2022
'CAQBorduas2014
LiberalBourassa-Sauvé2022
'CAQBrome-Missisquoi2018
'PQCamille-Laurin2022
'CAQChambly2014
'CAQChamplain2018
CAQChapleau2018
'CAQCharlesbourg2018
CAQCharlevoix–Côte-de-Beaupré2022
CAQChâteauguay2022
CAQChauveau2012, 2018
'CAQChicoutimi2018
LiberalChomedey2022
'CAQChutes-de-la-Chaudière2022
CAQCôte-du-Sud2022
LiberalD'Arcy-McGee2022
'CAQDeux-Montagnes2008, 2014
CAQDrummond–Bois-Francs2007, 2012
CAQDubuc2018
'CAQDuplessis2022
LiberalFabre2022
CAQGaspé2022
CAQGatineau2018
QSGouin2017
'CAQGranby2007
'CAQGroulx2018
QSHochelaga-Maisonneuve2018
CAQHull2022
CAQHuntingdon2022
CAQIberville2022
PQÎles-de-la-Madeleine2018
LiberalJacques-Cartier2018
QSJean-Lesage2018
LiberalJeanne-Mance–Viger2008
PQJean-Talon2023
'CAQJohnson2014
CAQJoliette2022
CAQJonquière2022
CAQLabelle2018
CAQLac-Saint-Jean2018
'LiberalLaFontaine2012
'CAQLa Peltrie2007
LiberalLa Pinière2022
CAQLaporte2022
Independent
'CAQLa Prairie2012, 2018
Independent
''CAQL'Assomption1998, 2012
QSLaurier-Dorion2018
CAQLaval-des-Rapides2022
CAQLaviolette–Saint-Maurice2018
CAQLes Plaines2018
'CAQLévis2007, 2022
CAQLotbinière-Frontenac2018
'CAQLouis-Hébert2017
LiberalMarguerite-Bourgeoys2022
CAQMarie-Victorin2022
LiberalMarquette2018
CAQMaskinongé2018
CAQMasson2014
PQMatane-Matapédia2007
QSMaurice-Richard2022
CAQMégantic2018
'QSMercier2018
LiberalMille-Îles2022
CAQMirabel2014
 †CAQMontarville2012
CAQMontmorency1998, 2018
LiberalMont-Royal–Outremont2022
LiberalNelligan2018
CAQNicolet-Bécancour2012
LiberalNotre-Dame-de-Grâce2022
CAQOrford2018
'CAQPapineau2018
'CAQPointe-aux-Trembles2018
LiberalPontiac2014
CAQPortneuf2018
'CAQPrévost2022
CAQRené-Lévesque2022
'CAQRepentigny2022
CAQRichelieu2018
CAQRichmond2018
'CAQRimouski2022
Independent
CAQRivière-du-Loup–Témiscouata2022
LiberalRobert-Baldwin2022
CAQRoberval2018
QSRosemont2018
CAQRousseau2018
CAQRouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue2003, 2008, 2022
CAQSaint-François2018
QSSaint-Henri–Sainte-Anne2023
CAQSaint-Hyacinthe2014
CAQSaint-Jean2018
CAQSaint-Jérôme2018
Independent
LiberalSaint-Laurent2018
Independent
QSSainte-Marie–Saint-Jacques2014
'CAQSainte-Rose2018
'CAQSanguinet2022
QSSherbrooke2018
CAQSoulanges2018
'CAQTaillon2018
Independent
QSTaschereau2022
PQTerrebonne2025
'CAQTrois-Rivières2018
CAQUngava2018
'CAQVachon2018
CAQVanier-Les Rivières2018
LiberalVaudreuil2014
'CAQVerchères2022
QSVerdun2022
LiberalViau2018
CAQVimont2022
LiberalWestmount–Saint-Louis2018
------Abitibi-Est2018
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Laporte2022
-'-La Prairie2012, 2018
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------'-Rimouski2022
------------------------------------------Saint-Jérôme2018
--Saint-Laurent2018
---------------------'-Taillon2018
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