National Assembly of Quebec

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Assemblee_Nationale_du_Quebec_la_nuit.jpg

The Quebec Parliament Building at night

The National Assembly of Qu�bec (French: Assembl�e nationale du Qu�bec) is the legislative body of the Province of Quebec, Canada. It operates in a fashion similar to that of other British-style parliamentary systems. Since the abolition in 1968 of the Legislative Council (French: Conseil l�gislatif), hitherto the upper house of the Quebec Parliament, the lower house known as National Assembly of Quebec has had exclusive power to enact laws in the provincial jurisdictions defined in the Constitution of Canada. The current President of the National Assembly of Quebec is Liberal Member of the National Assembly (MNA) Michel Bissonnet.

Contents

1 History

2 Parliament Building

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 1867 British North America Act, which created the Canadian confederation, split the Province of Canada into the provinces of Quebec and Ontario. 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". 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

Built in Quebec City between 1877 and 1886, the present Hôtel du Parlement (Parliament Building) was designed by architect Eug�ne-�tienne Tach�. It is a unique construction in North America, with a Second Empire style of architecture. Its fa�ade features a pantheon representing important events and people in the history of Quebec.

Elections

General elections are held at least every five years. Any person holding a Canadian citizenship and who has resided in Quebec for at least six months qualifies to have his or her name entered on the electoral list.

Quebec's territory is divided into 125 electoral districts (ridings). In each electoral division, 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.

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, or Prime Minister. (In French, both titles are rendered as Premier Ministre.).

Current members

</table> Official seating plan of the Quebec National Assembly. At the present, the 125 seats of the National Assembly are distributed as follows:

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Affiliation		Members	Female Members
	Parti lib�ral du Qu�bec	72	22
	Parti Qu�b�cois	45	16
	Action d�mocratique du Qu�bec	5	1
	Independent	1	0
	Vacant	2	-
Total		125	38
Government Majority		9

</center>

Lib�ral member Daniel Bouchard (Megantic-Compton) is sitting as an independent while being under an inquiry relating to a former job.

Lib�ral member Russell Williams (Nelligan) resigned on March 9, 2004. Yolande James (PLQ) won the by-election with 52.6% of the vote.

Lib�ral member Marc Bellemare (Vanier) resigned on April 28, 2004. Sylvain L�gar� (ADQ) won the by-election with 46.8% of the vote.

Lib�ral member Christos Sirros (Laurier-Dorion) resigned on June 17, 2004. Elsie Lefebvre (PQ) won the by-election with 46.1% of the vote.

Parti Qu�b�cois member Andr� Boisclair (Gouin) resigned on August 17, 2004. Nicolas Girard (PQ) won the by-election with 57.8% of the vote.

By-elections were held in these four districts on September 20, 2004.

Lib�ral member Yves S�guin (Outremont) resigned on May 26, 2005.

Leader of the Opposition and Former Premier Bernard Landry (Verch�res) resigned on June 6, 2005.

Member list

Cabinet Ministers are in Bold, Leaders are in Italics and the President of the National Assembly has a Dagger next to his name.

Maxime Arsenau	Parti Qu�b�cois	�les-de-la-Madeleine
Vincent Auclair	Lib�ral	Vimont
Michel Audet	Lib�ral	Laporte
Claude Bachand	Lib�ral	Arthabaska
Line Beauchamp	Lib�ral	Bourassa-Sauv�
Denise Beaudoin	Parti Qu�b�cois	Mirabel
Claude B�chard	Lib�ral	Kamouraska-T�miscouata
St�phane B�dard	Parti Qu�b�cois	Chicoutimi
Lawrence S. Bergman	Lib�ral	D'Arcy-McGee
Daniel Bernard	Lib�ral	Rouyn-Noranda�T�miscamingue
Raymond Bernier	Lib�ral	Montmorency
Rosaire Bertrand	Parti Qu�b�cois	Charlevoix
Michel Bissonnet†	Lib�ral	Jeanne-Mance�Viger
Karl Blackburn	Lib�ral	Roberval
Yvan Bordeleau	Lib�ral	Acadie
Camil Bouchard	Parti Qu�b�cois	Vachon
Daniel Bouchard	Independent	M�gantic-Compton
Claude Boucher	Parti Qu�b�cois	Johnson
Andr� Boulerice	Parti Qu�b�cois	Sainte-Marie�Saint-Jacques
Julie Boulet	Lib�ral	Laviolette
Alexandre Bourdeau	Parti Qu�b�cois	Berthier
Bernard Brodeur	Lib�ral	Shefford
Jocelyne Caron	Parti Qu�b�cois	Terrebonne
Jacques Chagnon	Lib�ral	Westmount�Saint-Louis
No�lla Champagne	Parti Qu�b�cois	Champlain
Jean-Pierre Charbonneau	Parti Qu�b�cois	Borduas
Jean Charest	Lib�ral	Sherbrooke
Nancy Charest	Lib�ral	Matane
Solange Charest	Parti Qu�b�cois	Rimouski
Lucie Charlebois	Lib�ral	Soulanges
Andr� Chenail	Lib�ral	Huntingdon
Roch Cholette	Lib�ral	Hull
Maurice Clermont	Lib�ral	Mille-�les
Russell Copeman	Lib�ral	Notre-Dame-de-Gr�ce
Pierre Corbeil	Lib�ral	Abitibi-Est
Jacques C�t�	Parti Qu�b�cois	Dubuc
Philippe Couillard	Lib�ral	Mont-Royal
Michelle Courchesne	Lib�ral	Fabre
Claude Cousineau	Parti Qu�b�cois	Bertrand
William Cusano	Lib�ral	Viau
Margaret F. Delisle	Lib�ral	Jean-Talon
Pierre Descoteaux	Lib�ral	Groulx
Serge Desli�res	Parti Qu�b�cois	Beauharnois
Michel Despr�s	Lib�ral	Jean-Lesage
L�andre Dion	Parti Qu�b�cois	Saint-Hyacinthe
Rita Dionne-Marsoliar	Parti Qu�b�cois	Rosemont
Danielle Doyer	Parti Qu�b�cois	Matap�dia
Jean Dubuc	Lib�ral	La Prairie
Marjolain Dufour	Parti Qu�b�cois	Ren�-L�vesque
Mario Dumont	ADQ	Rivi�re-du-Loup
Jacques P. Dupuis	Lib�ral	Saint-Laurent
Jean-Marc Fournier	Lib�ral	Ch�teauguay
Andr� Gabais	Lib�ral	Trois-Rivi�res
Monique Gagnon-Tremblay	Lib�ral	Saint-Fran�ois
Francine Gaudet	Lib�ral	Maskinong�
Fran�oise Gauthier	Lib�ral	Jonqui�re
Henri-Fran�ois Gautrin	Lib�ral	Verdun
Fran�ois Gendron	Parti Qu�b�cois	Abitibi-Ouest
Nicolas Girard	Parti Qu�b�cois	Gouin
Janvier Grondin	ADQ	Beauce-Nord
Sam Hamad	Lib�ral	Louis-H�bert
France Hamel	Lib�ral	La Peltrie
Louise Harel	Parti Qu�b�cois	Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
Fatima Houda-Pepin	Lib�ral	La Pini�re
Yolande James	Lib�ral	Nelligan
Monique J�r�me-Forget	Lib�ral	Marguerite-Bourgeoys
Normand Jutras	Parti Qu�b�cois	Drummond
Geoffrey Kelley	Lib�ral	Jacques-Cartier
R�jean Lafreni�re	Lib�ral	Gatineau
Mich�le Lamquin-�thier	Lib�ral	Cr�mazie
Diane Leblanc	Lib�ral	Beauce-Sud
Charlotte L'�cuyer	Lib�ral	Pontiac
Elsie Lefebvre	Parti Qu�b�cois	Laurier-Dorion
Sylvain L�gar�	ADQ	Vanier
Diane Legault	Lib�ral	Chambly
Fran�ois Legault	Parti Qu�b�cois	Rousseau
Richard Legendre	Parti Qu�b�cois	Blainville
Nicole L�ger	Parti Qu�b�cois	Pointe-aux-Trembles
Guy Leli�vre	Parti Qu�b�cois	Gasp�
Diane Lemieux	Parti Qu�b�cois	Bourget
Laurent Lessard	Lib�ral	Frontenac
Michel L�tourneau	Parti Qu�b�cois	Ungava
Nicole Loiselle	Lib�ral	Saint-Henri�Sainte-Anne
Norman MacMillan	Lib�ral	Papineau
Agn�s Maltais	Parti Qu�b�cois	Taschereau
Yvon Marcoux	Lib�ral	Vaudreuil
Pauline Marois	Parti Qu�b�cois	Taillon
Pierre Marsan	Lib�ral	Robert-Baldwin
�ric R. Mercier	Lib�ral	Charlesbourg
Pierre Moreau	Lib�ral	Marguerite-D'Youville
Michel Morin	Parti Qu�b�cois	Nicolet-Yamaska
Norbert Monrin	Lib�ral	Montmagny-L'Islet
Thomas J. Mulcair	Lib�ral	Chomedey
Nathalie Normandeau	Lib�ral	Bonaventure
Fran�ois Ouimet	Lib�ral	Marquette
Sylvain Pag�	Parti Qu�b�cois	Labelle
Lucie Papineau	Parti Qu�b�cois	Pr�vost
Alain Paquet	Lib�ral	Laval-des-Rapides
Jean-Pierre Paquin	Lib�ral	Saint-Jean
Pierre Paradis	Lib�ral	Brome-Missisquoi
Beno�t Pelletier	Lib�ral	Chapleau
Sarah Perreault	Lib�ral	Chauveau
Marc Picard	ADQ	Chutes-de-la-Chaudi�re
Claude Pinard	Parti Qu�b�cois	Saint-Maurice
Pierre Reid	Lib�ral	Orford
Lorraine Richard	Parti Qu�b�cois	Duplessis
Jean Rioux	Lib�ral	Iberville
H�l�ne Robert	Parti Qu�b�cois	Deux-Montagnes
Sylvie Roy	ADQ	Lotbini�re
Sylvain Simard	Parti Qu�b�cois	Richelieu
Jean-Pierre Soucy	Lib�ral	Portneuf
Jean-Claude St-Andr�	Parti Qu�b�cois	L'Assomption
Carole Th�berge	Lib�ral	L�vis
Lise Th�riault	Lib�ral	Anjou
Luc Th�riault	Parti Qu�b�cois	Masson
Tony Tomassi	Lib�ral	LaFontaine
St�phan Tremblay	Parti Qu�b�cois	Lac-Saint-Jean
Daniel Turp	Parti Qu�b�cois	Mercier
Yvon Valli�res	Lib�ral	Richmond
Jonathan Valois	Parti Qu�b�cois	Joliette
C�cile Vermette	Parti Qu�b�cois	Marie-Victorin
Dominique Vien	Lib�ral	Bellechasse
David Whissell	Lib�ral	Argenteuil

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.

External links

National Assembly of Quebec website (in French and English)
National Assembly historical data (in French)
Diagram of the positions in the Assembly (in French)
Data about the current president of the Assembly

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