Roch La Salle

Roch La Salle, a Progressive Conservative MP from Joliette in Quebec, briefly sat as an Independent in the early 1970s during a dispute with PC leader Robert Stanfield. La Salle, a passionate Quebec nationalist within the PC Party, clashed with the leadership over the party's Quebec strategy and his personal ambitions. Like several Quebec PCs, he was frustrated by the party's inability to break through in French Canada despite Stanfield's genuine efforts at bilingualism.

La Salle returned to the Progressive Conservative caucus and was eventually rewarded: he served as Minister of Public Works under Joe Clark in 1979 and again under Brian Mulroney from 1984 to 1987. However, he was forced to resign from Mulroney's cabinet amid allegations of patronage irregularities. His career exemplified the turbulent relationship between Quebec nationalists and the federal Conservative Party.