Marcel Chaput
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Marcel Chaput (October 14, 1918 - January 19, 1991) was a politician in Quebec, Canada. He was one of the early leaders of the Quebec sovereignist movement.
Chaput worked as a civil servant for the Government of Canada. In 1960, he wrote a series of articles for Le Devoir newspaper protesting the lack of use of French in the Department of National Defence where he worked. He attracted public notoriety for his activism in favor of Quebec sovereignty. He participated in the founding of the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale in September 1960, and became its vice-president.
Chaput wrote a book entitled Pourquoi je suis séparatiste (Why I am a Separatist), which was published in September 1961. In October 1961, he became president of the RIN. In November 1961, he was suspended without pay from his federal government job for violating employment laws that forbid civil servants from holding political office. As such, in December Chaput resigned from his job.
Since the RIN was not yet a political party, he decided to run as an independent in the 1962 election, failing to win a seat. He was replaced as president of the RIN by Guy Pouliot, and founded the Parti républicain du Québec, which, however, met with no success at all. In 1965, he rejoined the RIN, which had by then become a political party under the leadership of Pierre Bourgault, and ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in the 1966 election.
He later became a member of the Parti Québécois, and wanted to run as a candidate in Maisonneuve riding for the 1970 election but lost the party's nomination to Robert Burns. In the 1973 election, he again failed to win nomination as a PQ candidate, this time in Terrebonne riding.
[edit] See also
- Politics of Quebec
- Timeline of Quebec history
- Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale
- History of the Quebec sovereignist movement
