Party Leader
Johnson was elected party leader against Jean-Jacques Bertrand in 1961. His party lost the 1962 election against Jean Lesage's Liberals, but he was returned to the legislature.
In 1965, his book entitled, Égalité ou indépendance (Equality or independence), made him the first leader of a Quebec political party to recognize the possibility of independence for Canada from the British Crown—and if the English-speaking Canadians didn't want to be independent, then Quebec could do it alone. His position on the issue was seen to be ambiguous: as he wrote in his book, his position was for "independence if necessary, but not necessarily independence" (a reference to Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King's famous utterance in the WWII conscription debate).
Read more about this topic: Daniel Johnson, Sr.
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