Jean-Paul Poulin

Jean-Paul Poulin (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ pɔl pulɛ̃]) 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.

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]

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]

v t e 1989 Quebec general election: Rosemont
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Guy Rivard (incumbent)	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.

v t e 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

v t e 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

v t e 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

v t e 1981 Quebec general election: Shefford
Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Parti Québécois	Roger Paré	15,632	46.78
	Liberal	Richard Verreault (incumbent)	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

Politician

Early political activities

Return of the PSCU

Electoral record

References

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