Pierre Ribot of the Free Quebec Party.
The Free Quebec Party was a political party founded in the Confederation of Quebec in 1810 by Francophone politicians, including Pierre Ribot and Paul Cerdan. The F.Q.P. called for greater autonomy for Quebec within the Confederation of North America.
During the Trans-Oceanic War between Great Britain and France, Cerdan attempted to rally support for France among Quebec's Francophone inhabitants, but he was unsuccessful. After the turn of the nineteenth century, support for independence increased among Quebecois Francophones, and Ribot and Cerdan were able to organize the Free Quebec Party in 1810.
The F.Q.P. did not go so far as to demand independence, but it did seek greater autonomy for Quebec. Ribot in particular repeatedly affirmed his allegiance to the Confederation of North America, although as early as 1812 he wrote on the need for Quebec's complete separation from the C.N.A. and was secretly preparing for the violent overthrow of the Quebec City government.
Even though the F.Q.P. was regarded as a fringe group by Quebec's Anglophones, the Conservative Party formed an electoral alliance with them during Quebec's 1814 provincial elections. Although the Conservatives won control of Quebec's government in 1814, their policies proved too moderate for the F.Q.P., which turned to terrorism and acts of violence.
Sobel does not indicate whether the F.Q.P. continued to operate openly in Quebec after 1814, or whether the organization was suppressed by the government or went underground. He also does not indicate whether there were any formal or informal links between the F.Q.P. and the resistance group called the Patriotes organized by Louis Papineau in the late 1830s.
Sobel's sources for the Free Quebec Party are Ribot's My Life and Works (London, 1829); Thomas Taggert's Ribot of Quebec: Patriot or Demagogue? (New York, 1954); John Reynolds' Background for Rebellion: Quebec, 1800-1838 (New York, 1956); and Etienne Bayard's The Sputtering Fuse: The French Question in Quebec in the Nineteenth Century (New York, 1967).