René Matte was a Canadian politician and a Member of the House of Commons

Canadian House of Commons

The House of Commons of Canada is a component of the Parliament of Canada, along with the Sovereign and the Senate. The House of Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 308 members known as Members of Parliament...

.

Political career

Matte ran as a Ralliement Créditiste

Ralliement créditiste

Historically in Quebec, Canada, there was a number of political parties that were part of the Canadian social credit movement. There were various parties at different times with different names at the provincial level, all broadly following the social credit philosophy; at various times they had...

 candidate in the federal district of Champlain

Champlain (electoral district)

Champlain was a federal electoral district in Quebec, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1867 to 2004.It was created in 1867 as part of the British North America Act...

 in the 1968 election

Canadian federal election, 1968

The Canadian federal election of 1968 was held on June 25, 1968, to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 28th Parliament of Canada...

 and won. His party rejoined the national Social Credit Party of Canada

Social Credit Party of Canada

The Social Credit Party of Canada was a conservative-populist political party in Canada that promoted social credit theories of monetary reform...

 in 1971. He was re-elected in the 1972

Canadian federal election, 1972

The Canadian federal election of 1972 was held on October 30, 1972 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 29th Parliament of Canada. It resulted in a slim victory for the governing Liberal Party, which won 109 seats, compared to 107 seats for the opposition Progressive...

 and 1974 elections

Canadian federal election, 1974

The Canadian federal election of 1974 was held on July 8, 1974 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 30th Parliament of Canada. The governing Liberal Party won its first majority government since 1968, and gave Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau his third term...

.

He ran for the leadership of the Social Credit Party in 1976

Social Credit Party of Canada leadership conventions

The Canadian social credit movement first contested the 1935 federal election in order to capitalize from the Alberta Social Credit League's surprise victory in Alberta's August 1935 provincial election...

 advocating that Canada be divided into five sovereign regions in a loose confederation He placed second to federalist

Canadian federalism

Canada is a federation with two distinct jurisdictions of political authority: the country-wide federal government and the ten regionally-based provincial governments. It also has three territorial governments in the far north, though these are subject to the federal government...

 André-Gilles Fortin

André-Gilles Fortin

André-Gilles Fortin was a Canadian politician in the 1970s. Fortin was a member of the Canadian House of Commons for the Social Credit Party of Canada....

 after several Social Credit MPs threatened to leave the party if Matte won. Matte ran for the leadership again in 1978 but abruptly resigned from the party to sit as an independent when its national executive decided to hold the leadership convention

Leadership convention

In Canadian politics, a leadership convention is held by a political party when the party needs to choose a leader due to a vacancy or a challenge to the incumbent leader.- Overview :...

 in Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

. Interim leader Charles-Arthur Gauthier

Charles-Arthur Gauthier

Charles-Arthur Gauthier was a long time Canadian Member of Parliament for the Social Credit Party and Ralliement Créditiste. Gauthier, an undertaker, was first elected to the Canadian House of Commons representing Roberval, Quebec in the 1962 election...

 stated that Matte was expelled after refusing to follow party discipline

Party discipline

Party discipline is the ability of a parliamentary group of a political party to get its members to support the policies of their party leadership. In liberal democracies, it usually refers to the control that party leaders have over its legislature...

 for 18 months.

He ran as an independent candidate in the 1979 federal election

Canadian federal election, 1979

The Canadian federal election of 1979 was held on May 22, 1979 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 31st Parliament of Canada. It resulted in the defeat of Liberal Party of Canada after 11 years in power under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Joe Clark led the Progressive...

 and was defeated by Liberal

Liberal Party of Canada

The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 candidate Michel Veillette

Michel Veillette

Michel Veillette was a Liberal party member of the Canadian House of Commons. He was an agricultural technologist and manager by career....

. Matte ran again in 1980

Canadian federal election, 1980

The Canadian federal election of 1980 was held on February 18, 1980 to elect members of the Canadian House of Commons of the 32nd Parliament of Canada...

 as a New Democratic Party

New Democratic Party

The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...

 candidate, but finished second.

Footnotes