Quartier

The **Quartier Party** was a party active during MPSP18. As a member of the Macdonald-Cartier Coalition with CASK, it served as the Official Opposition and later formed the Government in the House of Commons. It was led by rookie model parliamentarian Trevor Stewart, with fellow rookie Megan Spooner serving as deputy leader.

## Party Platform

Quartier's platform was centred around a commitment to "Frenchify" Canada, by legislating cultural phenomena prevalent in French Canada. Key policies included: designating improvisation as the national year-round sport of Canada; adding poutine as a fifth food group under the Canada Food Guide; renaming the national currency to the 'Dion'; redirecting all waste management services to the province of Saskatchewan (as compensation for having stolen their wives...); implementing a mandatory socialization time between 5pm and 7pm; the full transition to the 24-hour clock; and launching a National 'W' Strategy for hockey fans across the country.

## Pre-Election

Quartier was originally founded by experienced model provincial legislators Trevor Stewart and Megan Spooner. However, not knowing the rules and culture of the federal simulated legislature, the party's initial platform included several questionable policies resulting in derision from opposing parties. Quartier's presence was nonetheless boosted by the addition of veteran model parliamentarian William Hinse-MacCulloch to the leadership team as House Leader. The party at first struggled to attract followers due to its staunchly bilingual and pro-French stance, and events including the betrayal of its Chief Whip to the WAVE Party raised questions concerning its viability as a competitive party. It nonetheless gained significant momentum following a strong performance in the debate and a strong social media strategy.

## Opposition

On Election Night of MPSP18, Quartier secured 32 seats, narrowly coming in fifth place behind the WAVE, CASK, CLIQUE and GOT parties, but fortunately well ahead of the runt GOP caucus. Following the election, Quartier entered into a provisional coalition agreement with the Canadian Alliance of Steins and Kegs (CASK), giving birth to the Macdonald-Cartier Coalition. The coalition sat together as Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, keeping the WAVE government to account for its failure to include policies representing Brewers and Francophones across Canada. Crucially, Quartier ensured that it would avoid simply merging with CASK by forming a coalition, thus maintaining a distinct identity and leadership apparatus which would serve it well over the course of the 2018 session.

## Government

Following the defeat of the WAVE government, Quartier and CASK added the GoT Party to their coalition to form government (forming what was informally referred to as the Macdonald-Cartier-Targaryen Coalition). Throughout the morning of the second day, the coalition successfully governed Canada through opposition from the newly formed TIDE (WAVE) and SHOOK parties, although cracks were beginning to show in the coalition parties' commitment to each other.

With CASK Leader and Prime Minister Michael Giesbrecht choosing to retire from political life in order to resume his hunt for the Holy Grail, the Quartier Party was next in line to detain the premiership. Pundits initially expected that rookie parliamentarian Stewart would assume the role of Prime Minister, to the ire of many traditional members of the peanut gallery. However, the caucus quickly determined that William Hinse-MacCulloch should take on the top government job, judging that his experience and wisdom would prove to be more useful to the premiership than the youth and verve of Stewart.

Just before the crucial confidence vote on the coalition government's bill, however, Hinse-MacCulloch made a shocking announcement that the Quartier Party would be withdrawing from the governing coalition due to the increasing marginalization of its policies. The government bill was subsequently resoundingly defeated while a new super-party took government - DADDY. Following the coalition's collapse, the Quartier caucus unanimously voted to stay together and formed the third party in opposition to the DADDY-FUN government. Quartier proudly boasted of the fact that they were the only party to stay together throughout the two days of the sitting.