Parti National Social Chrétien
| Parti National Social Chrétien | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Canada | ||
| Newspaper | The Canadian Nationalist (English) Le Combat National (French) Le Fasciste Canadien (French) | ||
The Parti National Social Chrétien was a Canadian political party formed by French-Canadian Adrien Arcand on February 22, 1934 when their first meeting was held in Montreal, Quebec. The party identified with Adolf Hitler's political ideology of National Socialism. The party was referred to in English press as the Canadian National Socialist Unity Party, the Christian National Socialist Party the National Socialist Christian Party and the National Socialist Christian Union. By the mid 1930s, the party had some success, with a few thousand members mainly concentrated in Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta.
In May 1938 the party’s paramilitary wing the Blue Shirts became a separate organization under Dr. Gabriel Lambert. A few weeks later, July 4, the remains of the party merged with the Swastika Clubs in the eastern provinces and the Canadian Nationalist Party led by William Whittaker in western Canada forming the National Socialist Unity Party. The next year the party changed its name to the National Unity Party.
At a time of English-French Canadian tension, Arcand tried to create a pan-Canadian (English and French) nationalist political movement based on the NSDAP in Germany.
On May 30, 1940, the party was banned under the War Measures Act, and Arcand and many of his followers were arrested and detained for the duration of the war.
Arcand ran in the 1949 federal election in the riding of Richelieu—Verchères as a candidate for the National Unity Party. He placed second, winning 5,590 votes (29.1% of the total).
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