Michel Chartrand - Seeking Elected Office

Seeking Elected Office

In 1948, his fifth child was born, and the following year he went to the Asbestos Region to participate in the Asbestos Strike by local mine workers. In 1950, he became active with the executive committee of the Catholic Workers Confederation of Canada (CTCC). Involved with a number of union operations, in 1953 Chartrand became a salaried member of the union's executive committee. After internal disputes, he was fired from his job. However, after appealing the decision, a tribunal under Pierre Trudeau reinstated him.

In 1954, Chartrand stood for election to the post of secretary-general of the union but was defeated by Jean Marchand. In 1956, he joined the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), a social democratic federal political party headed in Quebec by Thérèse Casgrain. Chartrand was appointed a Quebec delegate to the party's convention in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As a result, a Quebec branch of the party was organized under the name Parti social démocratique du Québec. Chartrand was the party's candidate in the Chambly riding in the 1956 provincial election, but was badly defeated. His union duties involved numerous high-profile strikes, and he was seen by some as a future leader of the movement and was leader of the party from 1957 until 1960.

Chartrand ran for the CCF in the 1958 federal election as a candidate in the town of Arvida, Quebec. Despite a strong union base, he nevertheless lost by a wide margin. In 1959, Chartrand tried again for public office, running in a Quebec provincial by-election in Lac Saint-Jean, Quebec, but once again was badly defeated. His frustration became evident through his growing extremist remarks, and in 1959, the union forced him to resign from its executive committee. He was then hired to work at the printing office of the Parti social-démocratique, and was a delegate again to the CCF's convention in Winnipeg.