Voting in the Quebec Plebiscite, 1889.
The Loyalty Party was one of three political parties that formed in Quebec in the run-up to the Quebec Plebiscite of 6 July 1889.
The Loyalty Party wanted to maintain the status quo, with Quebec remaining a full confederation of the Confederation of North America. Most members of the Loyalty Party were wealthy business owners and monarchist refugees from revolutionary France. Members of the Loyalty Party were targeted for violence by the pro-independence Free Quebec Coalition, suffering death threats and bombing attacks on their offices. The violence led a number of Quebecois to have second thoughts about independence, fearing that the campaign violence offered a foretaste of life under the F.Q.C. in an independent Quebec. in an independent Quebec.
On the day of the plebiscite, the Loyalty Party received 92,456 votes, 5% of the 1,844,089 cast. While the F.Q.C. received only 41% of the vote, and the pro-association Justice and Peace Party won a majority of 54%.
Sobel's source for the Loyalty Party in the Quebec Plebiscite is Armond Fleur's We Leave as Friends: The 1889 Plebiscite (New York, 1945).