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Liberal Leaders and Liberal Success: The Impact of Alternation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2019

Richard Johnston
Richard Johnston*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, 1866 Main Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z2
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: richard.johnston@ubc.ca
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Abstract

A leader from Quebec boosts the fortunes of the Liberal party in that province. This, in turn, has helped make Quebec the veto player in twentieth-century Canadian elections and the Liberals the “natural” governing party. Although Quebec is no longer as critical as before, a leader from the province still makes a big difference. Full impact from the pattern requires more than one election to unfold. Patterns outside Quebec are similar, if fainter: the Liberal party is not punished for choosing a Quebecker and may even be helped. The early success of the pattern moved the Liberals to alternate between Quebec and non-Quebec leaders, such that the party is now led by a Quebecker more often than not. Maintaining alternation has never been easy and is only getting harder.

Résumé

Un chef du Québec favorise le sort du Parti libéral dans cette province. Cela a contribué à son tour à faire du Québec le joueur de veto aux élections canadiennes du XXe siècle et des libéraux le parti ayant « naturellement » vocation à gouverner. Bien que le Québec ne soit plus aussi critique qu'avant, un leader de la province marque toujours une grande différence. Le plein impact de la tendance nécessite plus d'une élection pour se déployer. À l'extérieur du Québec, les tendances sont semblables, quoique plus faibles : le Parti libéral n'est pas puni pour avoir choisi un Québécois et peut même être aidé. Le succès initial de ce modèle a incité les libéraux à alterner entre des chefs québécois et non québécois, de sorte que le parti est maintenant dirigé le plus souvent par un Québécois. Le maintien de l'alternance n'a jamais été facile et ne fait que se compliquer.

Keywords

QuebecLiberal party leadershipLeadership alternationElections
Type
Research Article/Étude originale
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 52 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 423 - 442
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2019 

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