Social Credit Party of Canada split, 1963

The split between Ralliement des créditistes, which was the Quebec wing of the Social Credit Party of Canada, and the national organization had its roots in a long-standing dispute between the de facto leader of the Ralliement, Réal Caouette, and the party’s national leader, Robert N. Thompson. At the party’s 1960 leadership convention, Thompson defeated Caouette for the leadership, and named him deputy leader of the party. The relationship was strained, however, and the strain was exacerbated when the party lost most of its seats in English-speaking parts of Canada in the 1963 federal election. Only Thompson and three others were elected outside of Quebec, while 20 Socreds were elected in Quebec. The two factions of the party were not re-united until October 1971.

Founding a new party

On Sunday, 1 September 1963, at the annual meeting of the Quebec wing of the party in Granby, Quebec, the 600 delegates voted to establish a new party. The vote was held after virtually no discussion by a show of hands. Approximately three-quarters of the delegates supported the motion to:
# no longer recognize Thompson as party leader; and
# ask the party’s Quebec Members of Parliament (MPs) to name a parliamentary leader until a leadership convention could be held.The convention also voted to appoint a ten-member committee to consider forming an affiliated party to contest provincial elections. [Dufresne, Bernard, “Quebec’s Socreds vote to Disown Thompson”, "Globe and Mail", 2 September 1963, p.1]

After the vote, 16 of the party’s 19 Quebec MPs met to consider approval of the motion. Ten of the MPs approved it immediately, while six deferred approval pending discussions with their constituents. Gerard Chapdelaine (Sherbrooke), Henri Latulippe (Compton—Frontenac) and Charles-Eugene Dionne (Kamouraska) did not attend the meeting. (Dr. Guy Marcoux, who had been elected as a Social Credit MP in Quebec—Montmorency in 1963, had left the Socred caucus to sit as an “independent Social Credit” MP.)

Caouette then gave a 55-minute speech to the convention saying that the results were the basis for forming an “efficient national Social Credit movement”.

On the Saturday of the convention, Caouette had given a 90-minute speech in which he described Thompson as a “marionette” for Premier of Alberta Ernest Manning, and said that in 1960, ten minutes before the leadership vote, Manning had instructed him to “tell your people to vote for Thompson because the West will never accept a Roman Catholic French Canadian leader”. [Ibid.]

Thompson’s response to the split in his party was limited at first: “Quebec doesn’t quite run me yet, nor the country.” [Ibid.] the following day, he said that the Social Credit Party would now have wider acceptance throughout Canada than it had before because of Caouette’s departure. [Globe and Mail, “7 in Quebec Give Support to Thompson”, 3 September 1963, p. 1]

On 2 September 1963, seven Quebec MPs announced that they would be supporting Caouette’s breakaway faction: Maurice Coté (Chicoutimi), Jean-Louis Frenette (Portneuf), Chapdelaine, Gerard Ouelette (Rimouski), and Marcel Lessard (Lake St. John) and Gerard Grouard (Labelle). Dr. Marcoux rejoined the Social Credit Party and announced his loyalty to Thompson. (Marcoux had never stated his reasons for quitting the party, but said that the reasons had now been removed.) This left the Thompson faction with 11 MPs, the Caouette faction with ten, and three MPs who had not announced. [ Dufresne, Bernard, “7 in Quebec Give Support to Thompson”, Globe and Mail, 3 September 1963, p. 1] The executive of the Ralliement des in Marcoux's Quebec—Montmorency riding called for his resignation, saying that he had "betrayed us, has lost our confidence forever, and for the last time we ask him to resign." [Montreal Gazette, 11 September 1963, "Vote of Quebec MP to Caouette's group Gives Power Balance", p.1]

The Thompson loyalists said that they had been elected to work in the interests of party policies throughout the country under Thompson’s leadership, and that that mandate would remain intact until the next election. Further, they said that the positions of party leader and deputy leader could only be determined by a national convention. They announced that they would establish a new branch of the National Social Credit Association in Quebec to replace Caouette’s Ralliement des créditistes, which had been serving in that role. They also said that they expected that they would be expelled from the Ralliement. [Ibid.]

Caouette met with 14 Quebec Socred MPs on 2 September 1963 to start work on creating the new party. “Eventually we will attempt to make this a national party and take it across Canada to protect French Canadians in every province.” [Dufresne, Bernard, “In the Separatist Shadow”, Globe and Mail, 3 September 1963, p. 7] His faction now included Charles Gauthier (Roberval), Gilles Gregoire (Lapointe), Gerard Perron (Beauce), Gilbert Rondeau (Shefford), Pierre Boulin (Dorchester), R. Beaulé (Quebec Est), L.-P. Boulanger (Charlevoix), Raymond Langlois (Megantic), in addition to Latulippe and Dionne.

Caouette was elected parliamentary leader and Gregoire was elected House Leader.

Caouette again called for a new national convention of the Social Credit Party of Canada to choose a new leader, and announced that the Thompson loyalists in the Quebec caucus would not be expelled from the Ralliement des creditistes. Caouette said that Thompson did not care about the French Canadian view of politics, and was afraid of embracing social credit doctrine, for which there was more support in Quebec than in the rest of Canada. [Dufresne, 3 September 1963]

On 10 September 1963, Lucien Plourde, MP for Quebec West, declared his support for Caouette [Globe and Mail, “Creditiste MPs Outweigh Socreds”, 11 September 1963, p.41] , bringing the Ralliement des Creditiste caucus to 13, and reduced the Social Credit Party caucus to 11, one less than the minimum for a party to be a recognized group in the Canadian House of Commons, which meant that Caouette -- and not Thompson -- would receive an extra $4,000 per year in compensation (worth about $27,850 in 2007 dollars [ [http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/inflation_calc.html Bank of Canada inflation calculator] ] ), and be given priority in speaking in the House. [Globe and Mail, 11 September 1963] [Montreal Gazette, 11 September 1963] Seven of the 11-member Social Credit Party caucus were Quebecois, and only four from the party’s traditional base in Western Canada.

Reaction in the rest of Canada

W.A.C. Bennett, the Socred Premier of British Columbia had supported Caouette’s bid for the leadership of the national party in 1960, but following the split declared his support for the national leader, albeit in a less than convincing way: “I am for making unity, not disunity. What’s-his-name [Thompson] was elected national leader at the national convention and he is the national leader.” [Globe and Mail, “Bennett Forgets ‘What’s His Name’”, 6 September 1963]

The rejection of Thompson’s leadership by the Quebec wing of the party was supported by a group of rebels in the Ontario Social Credit Association called “Social Credit Action”. This group had split from the Ontario wing of the party over its refusal to campaign aggressively in provincial elections. Social Credit Action, led by former James Audy, the party’s former candidate in Spadina riding, and by David Hartman, also of Toronto, announced its support for Caouette. Audy blamed the split on Thompson, saying that he only wanted to keep power for Manning. [Dufresne, 2 September 1963.]

A separatist element?

There is evidence that support for the split came, in part, from a Quebec separatist element in the party. Yvan Piche, chief organizer of the Parti républicain, a separatist party led by Marcel Chaput, attended the annual meeting of the Quebec wing as an observer, and was seen talking to groups of young delegates.

Caouette, for his part, walked a thin line between federalism and separatism, saying that he wanted to work within the spirit and letter of Confederation: “Let us not burn our bridges. It is not the time for le Ralliement des créditistes to be separatists, but rather to win recognition for the French fact within Canada.” [Dufresne, 2 September 1963.] Caouette said that he would fight for the recognition of French Canada’s aspirations within Confederation on the basis of a partnership with the other nine provinces, “But if this partnership cannot be brought about, I shall become the more ardent separatist in Quebec.” [Dufresne, “In the Separatist Shadow”, Globe and Mail, 3 September 1963, p. 7]

Notes

ee also

*Social Credit
*Social Credit Party of Canada
*Ralliement des créditistes
*Canadian social credit movement