This is a list of the leaders of the opposition party of Quebec, Canada since Confederation (1867).
Note that the leader of the Opposition is not always the leader of the political party with the second-largest number of seats, in cases where the leader of that party does not have a seat.
There was no Leader of the Opposition until March 1869, when the government's second budget was introduced.
| Name | Electoral district (Region) |
Took Office | Left Office | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière | Lotbinière (Chaudière-Appalaches) |
1869 | 1878 | Liberal | |
| Joseph-Adolphe Chapleau | Terrebonne (Lanaudière) |
1878 | 1879 | Conservative | |
| Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière | Lotbinière (Chaudière-Appalaches) |
1879 | 1883 | Liberal | |
| Honoré Mercier | Saint-Hyacinthe (Montérégie) |
1883 | 1887 | Liberal | |
| Louis-Olivier Taillon | Montcalm (Lanaudière) |
1887 | 1890 | Conservative | |
| Jean Blanchet | Beauce (Chaudière-Appalaches) |
1890 | 1891 | Conservative | |
| Félix-Gabriel Marchand | Saint-Jean (Montérégie) |
1892 | 1897 | Liberal | |
| Edmund James Flynn | Gaspé (Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine) until 1900 Nicolet (Centre-du-Québec) after 1900 |
1897 | 1904 | Conservative | |
| Pierre-Évariste Leblanc | Laval (Laval) |
1905 | 1908 | Conservative | |
| Joseph-Mathias Tellier | Joliette (Lanaudière) |
1909 | 1915 | Conservative | |
| Philémon Cousineau | Jacques-Cartier (Montreal) |
1915 | 1916 | Conservative | |
| Arthur Sauvé | Deux-Montagnes (Laurentides) |
1916 | 1929 | Conservative | |
| Camillien Houde | Montréal-Sainte-Marie (Montreal) |
1929 | 1931 | Conservative | |
| Charles Ernest Gault | Montréal-Saint-Georges (Montreal) |
1931 | 1932 | Conservative | |
| Maurice Duplessis | Trois-Rivières (Mauricie) |
1932 | 1936 | Conservative | |
| Télesphore-Damien Bouchard | Saint-Hyacinthe (Montérégie) |
1936 | 1939 | Liberal | |
| Maurice Duplessis | Trois-Rivières (Mauricie) |
1939 | 1944 | Union Nationale | |
| Adélard Godbout | L'Islet (Chaudière-Appalaches) |
1944 | 1948 | Liberal | |
| George Carlyle Marler | Westmount-Saint-Georges (Montreal) |
1948 | 1953 | Liberal | |
| Georges-Émile Lapalme | Montréal-Outremont (Montreal) |
1953 | 1960 | Liberal | |
| Yves Prévost | Montmorency (Québec) |
1960 | 1961 | Union Nationale | |
| Antonio Talbot | Chicoutimi (Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean) |
1961 | 1961 | Union Nationale | |
| Daniel Johnson, Sr. | Bagot (Montérégie) |
1961 | 1966 | Union Nationale | |
| Jean Lesage | Louis-Hébert (Québec) |
1966 | 1970 | Liberal | |
| Robert Bourassa | Mercier (Montreal) |
1970 | 1970 | Liberal | |
| Jean-Jacques Bertrand | Missisquoi (Eastern Townships) |
1970 | 1971 | Union Nationale | |
| Gabriel Loubier | Bellechasse (Chaudière-Appalaches) |
1971 | 1973 | Union Nationale | |
| Jacques-Yvan Morin | Sauvé (Montreal) |
1973 | 1976 | Parti Québécois | |
| Gérard D. Levesque | Bonaventure (Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine) |
1976 | 1979 | Liberal | |
| Claude Ryan | Argenteuil (Laurentides) |
1979 | 1982 | Liberal | |
| Gérard D. Levesque | Bonaventure (Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine) |
1982 | 1985 | Liberal | |
| Robert Bourassa | Bertrand (Montérégie) |
1985 | 1985 | Liberal | |
| Pierre-Marc Johnson | Anjou (Montreal) |
1985 | 1987 | Parti Québécois | |
| Guy Chevrette | Joliette (Lanaudière) |
1987 | 1989 | Parti Québécois | |
| Jacques Parizeau | L'Assomption (Lanaudière) |
1989 | 1994 | Parti Québécois | |
| Daniel Johnson, Jr. | Vaudreuil (Montérégie) |
1994 | 1998 | Liberal | |
| Monique Gagnon-Tremblay | Saint-François (Eastern Townships) |
1998 | 1998 | Liberal | |
| Jean Charest | Sherbrooke (Eastern Townships) |
1998 | 2003 | Liberal | |
| Bernard Landry | Verchères (Montérégie) |
2003 | 2005 | Parti Québécois | |
| Louise Harel | Hochelaga-Maisonneuve (Montreal) |
2005 | 2006 | Parti Québécois | |
| André Boisclair | Pointe-aux-Trembles (Montreal) |
2006 | 2007 | Parti Québécois | |
| Mario Dumont | Rivière-du-Loup (Bas-Saint-Laurent) |
2007 | 2008 | Action démocratique du Québec | |
| Pauline Marois | Charlevoix (Capitale-Nationale) |
2008 | 2012 | Parti Québécois | |
| Jean-Marc Fournier | Saint-Laurent (Montreal) |
2012 | present | Liberal |
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, leaders, official and/or opposition:
“Every morning I woke in dread, waiting for the day nurse to go on her rounds and announce from the list of names in her hand whether or not I was for shock treatment, the new and fashionable means of quieting people and of making them realize that orders are to be obeyed and floors are to be polished without anyone protesting and faces are to be made to be fixed into smiles and weeping is a crime.”
—Janet Frame (b. 1924)
“Lastly, his tomb
Shall list and founder in the troughs of grass
And none shall speak his name.”
—Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)
“Unless the people can choose their leaders and rulers, and can revoke their choice at intervals long enough to test their measures by results, the government will be a tyranny exercised in the interests of whatever classes or castes or mobs or cliques have this choice.”
—George Bernard Shaw (18561950)
“I know one husband and wife who, whatever the official reasons given to the court for the break up of their marriage, were really divorced because the husband believed that nobody ought to read while he was talking and the wife that nobody ought to talk while she was reading.”
—Vera Brittain (18931970)
“A man with your experience in affairs must have seen cause to appreciate the futility of opposition to the moral sentiment. However feeble the sufferer and however great the oppressor, it is in the nature of things that the blow should recoil upon the aggressor. For God is in the sentiment, and it cannot be withstood.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)