Quebec.

• Author: Leonard, Denise
• Position: Assemblee Nationale - Provincial parliamentary activity in Quebec National Assembly

At the general election held on April 14, 2003, the Quebec Liberal Party won 76 of the 125 seats. The Parti Quebecois, which was in power before the election, now forms the Official Opposition with 44 Members. It won 1,268, 678 votes, or 33.20% of the electorate. Though four Members were elected under the Action democratique du Quebec party, they will sit as independent Members, pursuant to the current rules, as they obtained less than 20% of the popular vote. For a parliamentary group to be officially recognized, it must have obtained at least 20% of the popular vote or have no fewer than 12 Members returned to the Assembly.

In total, 25 Members retired from politics before the holding of the election. There are 46 new Members out of 125. Furthermore, 37 women were elected, which represents eight more than at the last election. Of this number, 22 are Members of the Quebec Liberal Party, fourteen are of the Parti Quebecois and one is of the Action democratique.

A new election will be held on May 20 in the electoral division of Champlain owing to the equality of votes determined during the recount of the votes between the Parti Quebecois candidate and Liberal Party candidate.

As announced by the Jean Charest, the parliamentary proceedings of the 37th Legislature will begin on June 3, 2003.

Signing of interparliamentary cooperative agreements with Niger and Wallonia

On January 13, 2003, at the meeting of the Office of the Assemblee parlementaire de la Francophonie, the National Assembly of Quebec and the National Assembly of Niger signed an agreement of interparliamentary cooperation. This agreement aims to redefine the challenges brought about by globalization, as well as to develop and intensify interparliamentary cooperation, for the mutual benefit of both Assemblies.

Two seminars on interparliamentary cooperation had already been held in February and March 2002, prior to the signing of this agreement. On the one hand, an exchange seminar with the parliamentarians from Niger dealt with the organization of parliamentary assemblies, the duties assigned to parliamentarians, the privileges and immunities granted to parliamentarians, and the institutional and administrative structure of parliamentary committees. On the other hand, a technical seminar was conducted to help consolidate the efficiency of the support work provided to parliamentary committees by the administrative personnel and to reinforce their skills in the drafting and...