Jean-Paul Poulin

Jean-Paul Poulin was a politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. He was active in the Canadian social credit movement and led the Parti crédit social uni (PSCU; English: United Social Credit Party) through four general elections at the provincial level.

Private career

A travelling salesman for many years, Poulin worked as a night watchman in Montreal at the end of the 1970s.[1] In a 1981 interview, he recalled how he convinced farmers to paint their barns with the slogan, "Social Credit is Coming", during the 1960s.[2]

Politician

Early political activities

Poulin first ran for the Social Credit Party of Canada in the 1962 federal election. This party split into two factions the following year, when Réal Caouette formed a separate group called the Ralliement des créditistes. Poulin ran for Caouette's party in the 1968 federal election and also ran for the Ralliement national, a provincial social credit party not endorsed by Caouette, in the 1966 provincial election.

In 1969, the Ralliement des créditistes entered provincial politics by running candidates in four Quebec by-elections. At around the same time, Poulin established a dissident party called the Parti crédit social uni. Then fifty-one years old, he said that he and his allies did not support the way Caouette was running the party. He also indicated that he supported a "strong Quebec in a united Canada".[3]

Poulin ran against the official Ralliement créditiste du Québec candidate in Saint-Jacques in a 1969 by-election.[4] He also ran against an official Créditiste candidate in a 1971 by-election. He was defeated both times, as were all others who ran for his party.

The PSCU seems to have disappeared after this time, and Poulin and his supporters seem to have joined the re-united Social Credit Party of Canada under Caouette's leadership in 1971 or thereafter. Poulin ran for the re-united party in the 1974 federal election.

Return of the PSCU

The provincial Ralliement créditiste du Québec, which was aligned with the federal party, ceased operations in 1978. The PSCU was subsequently re-established, and Poulin again became the party's leader.[5] He stood in three general elections and four by-elections over the next decade, never bringing his party above fringe status.

During the 1981 provincial election, the Montreal Gazette described PCSU as a "hard core" Créditiste group and identified Poulin as a follower of Major C.H. Douglas's economic theories. When interviewed by the paper, Poulin held up a copy of his party's manifesto and said, "This was written in 1966 and I haven't had to change a word."[6] (He was presumably referring to the Ralliement national's manifesto from that year's provincial election.)

Poulin was asked for his opinion on abortion during the 1989 provincial election. Perhaps unusually, in light of the Social Credit Party's general social conservatism, he declined to give an opinion and said that the issue should be decided by women alone.[7] In the same election, Poulin said that social credit monetarist policies could not be implemented in Canada at the provincial level; he promised to instead target unemployment if elected.[8] He was seventy-two years old at the time.[9]

The party was deregistered in 1994.[10]

Electoral record

Provincial

1989 Quebec general election: Rosemont
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Guy Rivard	13,121	46.97
	Parti Québécois	Sylvain Simard	12,988	46.50
	New Democratic	Pierre Dion	620	2.22
	Progressive Conservative	Lyse T. Giguère	298	1.07
	Parti indépendantiste	Richard Belleau	278	1.00
	Workers	Régis Beaulieu	256	0.92
	Commonwealth of Canada	Normand Bélanger	134	0.48
	United Social Credit	Jean-Paul Poulin	92	0.33
	Marxist–Leninist	France Tremblay	79	0.28
	Socialist Movement	Jean-Yves Desgagnés	67	0.24
Total valid votes			27,933
Rejected and declined votes			862
Turnout			28,795	75.65
Electors on the lists			38,064
Source: Official Results, Le Directeur général des élections du Québec.

1985 Quebec general election: Rosemont
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Guy Rivard	14,810	52.65
	Parti Québécois	Lise Denis	11,745	41.75
	New Democratic	Roger Lamarre	742	2.64
	Parti indépendantiste	Louise Brouillet	394	1.40
	Humanist	Sylvie Lepage	183	0.65
	United Social Credit	Jean-Paul Poulin	104	0.37
	Communist	Claude Demers	83	0.30
	Commonwealth of Canada	Louis Julien	43	0.15
	Christian Socialist	Carlos Zencovich	27	0.10
Total valid votes			28,131
Rejected and declined votes			485
Turnout			28,616	75.11
Electors on the lists			38,101

Quebec provincial by-election, June 3, 1985: L'Assomption
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Jean-Guy Gervais	12,019	46.71
	Progressive Conservative	André Asselin	8,180	31.79
	Parti Québécois	Denis Taillon	5,131	19.94
	United Social Credit	Jean-Paul Poulin	229	0.89
	Commonwealth of Canada	Jacques Lambert	174	0.68
Total valid votes			25,733
Rejected and declined votes			789
Turnout			26,522	55.08
Electors on the lists			48,148
Source: Official Results, Government of Quebec

Quebec provincial by-election, June 20, 1983: Saint-Jacques
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Serge Champagne	6,911	44.22
	Parti Québécois	Jeannine Chéron	6,436	41.18
	Union Nationale	Michel Ouellette	492	3.15
	Non-Affiliated	Dominique Langevin	423	2.71
	Independent	Robert Wilkins	368	2.35
	Independent	Roméo Lizotte	302	1.93
	Workers	Gérard Lachance	281	1.80
	Independent	Colette Provost	200	1.28
	United Social Credit	Jean-Paul Poulin	53	0.34
	Independent	Patricia Métivier	50	0.32
	Independent	Paul Désormiers	46	0.29
	Non-Affiliated	Claude Guertin	34	0.22
	Commonwealth of Canada	Paul Rochon	33	0.21
Total valid votes			15,629
Rejected and declined votes			345
Turnout			15,974	52.28
Electors on the lists			30,552
Source: Official Results, Government of Quebec

1981 Quebec general election: Shefford
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Parti Québécois	Roger Paré	15,632	46.78
	Liberal	Richard Verreault	14,905	44.60
	Union Nationale	Luc Bouchard	2,725	8.15
	United Social Credit	Jean-Paul Poulin	156	0.47
Total valid votes			33,418	100.00
Rejected and declined votes			362
Turnout			33,780	85.71
Electors on the lists			39,410

Quebec provincial by-election, November 17, 1980: Mégantic-Compton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Fabien Bélanger	9,259	46.95
	Parti Québécois	Richard Labelle	7,135	36.18
	Union Nationale	Fernand A. Grenier	3,162	16.04	–
	United Social Credit	Jean-Paul Poulin	163	0.83
Total valid votes			19,719
Rejected and declined votes			144
Turnout			19,863	70.38
Electors on the lists			28,222
Source: Official Results, Government of Quebec

Quebec provincial by-election, November 14, 1979: Prévost
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Solange Chaput-Rolland	25,717	63.06
	Parti Québécois	Pierre Harvey	14,433	35.39
	Workers	Richard Lépine	298	0.73
	Ind. (Crédit social uni)	Jean-Paul Poulin	257	0.63
	Non-Affiliated	Marc Blouin	78	0.19
Total valid votes			40,783	100.00
Rejected and declined votes			1,145
Turnout			41,928	77.98
Electors on the lists			53,771
Source: Official Results, Government of Quebec

Quebec provincial by-election, February 8, 1971: Chambly
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Jean Cournoyer	22,647	64.57
	Parti Québécois	Pierre Marois	11,452	32.65
	Ralliement créditiste	Clément Patry	665	1.90
	Independent	Luke G. Dougherty	267	0.76
	Non-Affiliated	Lionel Desjardins	18	0.05
	N/A (Crédit social uni)	Jean-Paul Poulin	17	0.05
	Non-Affiliated	Claude Longtin	7	0.02
Total valid votes			35,073	100.00
Rejected and declined votes			928
Turnout			36,001	68.19
Electors on the lists			52,795
Source: Official Results, Government of Quebec

Quebec provincial by-election, October 8, 1969: Saint-Jacques
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Union Nationale	Jean Cournoyer	5,695	71.73	–
	N/A (Créditiste)	Jean-Marc Fontaine	1,050	13.22
	Non-Affiliated	Jean Desautels	407	5.13
	Independent	André Coallier	374	4.71
	N/A (Crédit social uni)	Jean-Paul Poulin	220	2.77
	Independent	Henri-Georges Grenier	194	2.44
Total valid votes			7,940	100.00
Rejected and declined votes			767
Turnout			8,707	29.51
Electors on the lists			29,503
Source: Official Results, Government of Quebec

1966 Quebec general election: Saint-Jacques
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Union Nationale	Paul Dozois	9,869	49.97	–
	Liberal	Jacques Guilbault	7,663	38.80
	RIN	Paul Mainville	1,834	9.29
	Ralliement national	Jean-Paul Poulin	383	1.94
Total valid votes			19,749	100.00
Rejected and declined votes			458
Turnout			20,207	57.68
Electors on the lists			35,035
Source: Rapport du président général des élections (Quebec), Élections 1966.

There was also a Jean-Paul Poulin who ran as a Liberal candidate in Labelle in the 1962 provincial election, but it is not clear if this was the same person.

Federal

1974 Canadian federal election: Saint-Henri
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Gérard Loiselle	8,813	52.02
	Progressive Conservative	Lucien Jarraud	6,147	36.29
	New Democratic	Gus Callaghan	922	5.44
	Social Credit	Jean-Paul Poulin	633	3.74
	Independent	Louis Grégoire	306	1.81
	Marxist–Leninist	Robert Perrault	119	0.70
Total valid votes			16,940	100.00
Total rejected ballots			724
Turnout			17,664	61.27
Electors on the lists			28,832

1968 Canadian federal election: Beauharnois
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Gérald Laniel	17,203	59.82
	Progressive Conservative	Armand Miron	8,703	30.26
	New Democratic	Joseph-Aurèle Patafie	1,764	6.13
	Ralliement créditiste	Jean-Paul Poulin	1,087	3.78
Total valid votes			28,757
Total rejected ballots			550
Turnout			29,307	72.33
Electors on the lists			40,519

1962 Canadian federal election: Saint-Jacques
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Maurice Rinfret	7,664	40.59
	Progressive Conservative	Gérard Hébert	7,271	38.51
	Social Credit	Jean-Paul Poulin	2,023	10.71
	New Democratic	Willie Fortin	1,925	10.19
Total valid votes			18,883	100.00
Total rejected ballots			431
Turnout			19,314	58.39
Electors on the lists			33,079

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References

"Party leader seeks election in Quebec vote," Globe and Mail, 20 October 1979, 2.
Hubert Bauch, "Chasing votes on the political fringe," Montreal Gazette, 28 March 1981, p. 25.
Ronald Lebel, "Creditistes' entry into politics likely to be swamped by UN win," Globe and Mail, 25 September 1969, p. 10.
Montreal Gazette, 8 October 1969, p. 52.
"Party leader seeks election in Quebec vote," Globe and Mail, 20 October 1979, 2.
Hubert Bauch, "Chasing votes on the political fringe," Montreal Gazette, 28 March 1981, p. 25.
David Johnston, "On the fringe of Canadian politics, truth is stranger than fiction," Montreal Gazette, 18 September 1989, p. 6.
Michèle Ouimet, "Revoici le crédit social," La Presse, 24 August 1989, B3.
David Johnston, "On the finge of Canadian politics, truth is stranger than fiction," Montreal Gazette, 18 September 1989, p. 6.
"Ralliement créditiste". QuébecPolitique.com (in French). Retrieved 2010-12-31.

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[1] "Party leader seeks election in Quebec vote," Globe and Mail, 20 October 1979, 2.

[2] Hubert Bauch, "Chasing votes on the political fringe," Montreal Gazette, 28 March 1981, p. 25.

[3] Ronald Lebel, "Creditistes' entry into politics likely to be swamped by UN win," Globe and Mail, 25 September 1969, p. 10.

[4] Montreal Gazette, 8 October 1969, p. 52.

[5] "Party leader seeks election in Quebec vote," Globe and Mail, 20 October 1979, 2.

[6] Hubert Bauch, "Chasing votes on the political fringe," Montreal Gazette, 28 March 1981, p. 25.

[7] David Johnston, "On the fringe of Canadian politics, truth is stranger than fiction," Montreal Gazette, 18 September 1989, p. 6.

[8] Michèle Ouimet, "Revoici le crédit social," La Presse, 24 August 1989, B3.

[9] David Johnston, "On the finge of Canadian politics, truth is stranger than fiction," Montreal Gazette, 18 September 1989, p. 6.

[10] "Ralliement créditiste". QuébecPolitique.com (in French). Retrieved 2010-12-31.