The
Union des électeurs (UE) (in
English: "Union of Electors") was founded in 1939 by
Louis Even and
Gilberte Côté-Mercier. It was the first
créditiste political movement to be active in Quebec. It ran two candidates, Even and Armand Turpin, in the
1940 federal election as part of the Canada-wide
New Democracy movement. Even won 17% of the vote and placed third in the
riding of
Lake St-John—Roberval. Turpin placed second with over 31.8% of the vote in
Hull. Even and the Union attended the founding convention of the Social Credit Association of Canada in 1944 and opposed the bid of the western Canada-based Social Credit federal caucus to establish a central party under the leadership of
Solon Low. While Even's group ran candidates in the
1945 federal election under the national Social Credit banner and again in subsequent by-elections, by 1949 the Quebec créditistes were again running candidates under the Union des électeurs banner as they were also doing in the Quebec provincial elections. The Union was accused of
antisemitism and of distributing the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Quebec. The
Canadian Jewish Congress referred to it as "fast becoming the rallying point of the numerous Jew-haters in French Canada". Even's belief, like that of social credit originator
C.H. Douglas, was that parties were corrupt and that the party system should be replaced by a "union of electors" who would compel elected officials to follow the popular will. Even and the Union broke with the national Social Credit organization in 1947 due to
Ernest Manning's increasingly hostile attitude towards them and his purge of anti-Semites from the movement. The Union influenced some Social Crediters outside of Quebec, including the
Social Credit Association of Ontario which stood its candidates in the
1948 Ontario elections under the name "Union of Electors". In British Columbia, there was a "Union of Electors" party which ran as a rival to the British Columbia Social Credit League in the
1949 provincial election. With
Réal Caouette and then
P. Ernest Grégoire as leader, the Quebec provincial party contested seats in the
1944 provincial election but won no seats and the
1948 provincial election when it managed to get 9.25% of the popular vote, but again won no seats. It also ran candidates federally: Caouette was elected to the
House of Commons of Canada in a 1946
by-election under the Social Credit banner. He failed to win re-election in the
1949 federal election as a Union des électeurs candidate, when the party ran a total of 56 candidates. None were successful. The Union des électeurs faded away as a political party after 1949. In the 1950s, Caouette contested seats in various by-elections against the wishes of Even and Côté-Mercier. In 1958, Caouette broke with Even and Côté-Mercier and founded the Ralliement des créditistes, which ran candidates in federal elections in the 1950s and 1960s and was, at times, the Quebec branch of the
Social Credit Party of Canada. In 1970, the federal Ralliement des créditistes founded a distinct provincial branch, the
Ralliement créditiste du Québec. In 1939, Even and Côté also founded a lay
Catholic group called the "
Pilgrims of Saint Michael", based in Rougemont, Quebec, that continues to promote social credit monetary policy coupled with conservative Catholicism. The Pilgrims publish
The Michael Journal in English and
Vers Demain in French. The group was founded in 1939 and is nicknamed "the White Berets" for the headgear worn by members.
Federal general election results Quebec provincial general election results ==Candidats des électeurs==