Until 1968, the Legislative Council of Quebec was the unelected upper house of the bicameral legislature in the Canadian province of Quebec. The Legislative Assembly was the elected lower house.
In 1968, the Legislative Council was abolished, and the Legislative Assembly was renamed the National Assembly. As a result of this change, Quebec has a unicameral legislature. The establishment of the original system dates back to the Constitutional Act of 1791.
The Union Nationale government of Premier Jean-Jacques Bertrand passed the legislation, known as "Bill 90", to implement the change. Previous governments had made unsuccessful attempts to eliminate the upper chamber. In fact, the first attempt dated all the way back to Félix-Gabriel Marchand in the late nineteenth century. Quebec was the last of the provinces to abolish its unelected upper house.
The large chamber which used to house the Legislative Council is also known as le salon rouge (the red hall) because of the predominance of this colour on the walls. It is now used for committee meetings and for important state functions that require a large, impressive hall, such as inductions into the National Order of Quebec.
