United Farmers of Quebec

The United Farmers of Quebec (Fermiers unis du Québec) were founded in 1920 as part of the broader United Farmers movement in of Canada.

The genesis of the organization was in protests resulting from the Conscription Crisis of 1917 against the attempt of Robert Borden's federal government to conscript farm youths into the Canadian military during World War I. Quebec farmers organized a large demonstration on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 15, 1918 bringing them into contact with the United Farmers national movement.

The Quebec farmers organized 20 associations in western Quebec and in September 1918 organized the Interprovincial Union of Farmers as an umbrella group. A conference held in Montreal in January 1920 transformed this group into the United Farmers of Québec which, by 1921, had 5,000 members in 20 counties.

In 1921, the United Farmers and the Union des cultivateurs du Québec formed the Parti fermier-progressiste du Québec (Progressive Farmers of Québec) with the support of Joseph-Noé Ponton and the Bulletin des agriculteurs.

The party was inspired by both the program of the Progressive Party of Canada (the political party of the national United Farmers movement) and the nationalism of Henri Bourassa.

The party supported 21 candidates, most of whom ran in conjunction with the Progressive Party of Canada in the 1921 federal election, but none were elected. The farmers' candidates won 42,000 votes, or 11% of the total in Quebec.

By 1924, the group had been overshadowed by the more conservative Catholic Union of Farmers.

References

• United Farmers of Quebec The Canadian Encyclopedia