Maxime Raymond

Maxime Raymond, a veteran Liberal MP from Quebec, founded the Bloc populaire canadien in September 1942, breaking decisively with the Liberal Party over Prime Minister Mackenzie King's decision to hold a plebiscite on releasing the government from its pledge not to impose conscription for overseas service during World War II. Raymond had been the most prominent anti-conscription voice within the Liberal caucus and had organized the Ligue pour la défense du Canada to campaign for "No" in the plebiscite. When Quebec voted overwhelmingly against conscription but was overruled by the rest of Canada, Raymond concluded that French-Canadian interests could no longer be protected from within the Liberal Party.

The Bloc populaire won two seats in the 1945 federal election, a disappointing result that reflected the party's organizational weakness outside Montreal. Raymond lost his own seat. The party dissolved by 1947, but its existence foreshadowed the later emergence of the Bloc Québécois in 1990 — both parties born from Quebec's sense of betrayal by the federal government on fundamental questions of national identity and autonomy.