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In 1991, Quebec Members of Parliament from the Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties joined together to create the Bloc Quebecois with the mandate to promote Quebec sovereignty.

Lucien Bouchard, who had been in Brian Mulroney’s cabinet, led the party to an early victory in the 1993 federal election winning 54 of 75 seats in Quebec, becoming the official opposition in the House of Commons. Bouchard announced then that his caucus would speak only French in the chamber, a tradition that continues today.

When the 1995 referendum on Quebec sovereignty failed to establish Quebec’s independence, Bouchard left federal politics and Michel Gauthier became the new leader of the Bloc from 1996 to 1997.

Under Gilles Duceppe, The Bloc’s seats dropped, first to 44 and then 38 at the next two federal elections, in 1997 and 2000.

Fortunes began to change for the Bloc in part due to the uncovering of the sponsorship scandal by the Auditor General of Canada which showed illegal national spending by the Liberals in Quebec in support of Canadian nationalism.

In the election a few months later, the Bloc won 54 seats 51 in the election two years later in 2006, and 49 in 2008.

In the 2011 election, still under the leadership of Duceppe, the Bloc won just 4 seats and lost its official party status (12 are required).

Leadership elections in 2011 and 2014 saw Daniel Paille and then Mario Beaulieu chosen as leaders until Gilles Duceppe returned in 2015 to lead the party in the election that year.

Duceppe helped the party win 10 seats, more than the party had before the election, but fewer than it hoped to gain. The share of the popular vote was the lowest it had ever achieved.

Martine Ouellet was elected as new leader in 2017 but in 2018 several Bloc MPs left the caucus citing issues with her leadership. She resigned in 2018. Yves-Francois Blanchet was named leader in early 2019. With Blanchet as leader, the party won 32 seats in the 2019 election.

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