Marcel Chaput (October 14 1918 - January 19 1991) was one of the early leaders of the Quebec sovereignist movement.

Chaput worked as a civil servant for the Canadian federal government. In 1960 he wrote a series of articles for Le Devoir protesting the lack of use of French in the Department of National Defence where he worked. He attracted public notoriety and the disapproval of his employer for his activism in favor of Quebec sovereignty. He participated in the founding of the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale in September 1960 and became its vice-president.

Chaput wrote a book entitled Pourquoi je suis séparatiste (Why I am a Separatist), which was published in September 1961 and quickly became a bestseller. In October 1961 he became president of the RIN. In November 1961 he was suspended without pay from his federal government job and in December he resigned from that job.

Since the RIN was not yet a political party, he decided to run as an independent in the 1962 election, failing to win a seat. He was replaced as president of the RIN by Guy Pouliot and founded the Parti républicain du Québec, which however met with no success at all. In 1965, he rejoined the RIN, which had by then become a political party under the leadership of Pierre Bourgault, and ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in the 1966 election.

He later became a member of the Parti Québécois and wanted to run as a candidate in Maisonneuve riding for the 1970 election but lost the nomination to Robert Burns. In the 1973 election he again failed to win nomination as a PQ candidate, this time in Terrebonne.

See also

• Politics of Quebec
• Timeline of Quebec history
• Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale

• History of the Quebec sovereignist movement

External links

• Marcel Chaput, pionnier de l'indépendance (1979, in French)
• Marcel Chaput: Le tout raconté par son petit-fils : Julien Chaput (in French)