Federal Politics
He was appointed leader of the federal Social Credit Party of Canada on March 30, 1979, and resigned his National Assembly seat on April 5, 1979.
Under Roy, the party won the tacit support of the sovereigntist Parti Québécois, which formed the government of Quebec. Social Credit attempted to rally the separatist and nationalist vote: Canadian flags were absent at its campaign kick-off rally, and the party's slogan was C'est à notre tour ("It's our turn"), which was reminiscent of the popular separatist anthem Gens du pays that includes the chorus, "C'est à votre tour de vous laisser parler d'amour". The party focused its platform on constitutional change, promising to fight to abolish the federal government's never-used right to disallow any provincial legislation, and stating that each province has a "right to choose its own destiny within Canada". Despite these attempts to win nationalist and separatist votes, the party was reduced to six seats in the 1979 federal election.
While his party provided some support to the minority Progressive Conservative Party of Canada government, Prime Minister Joe Clark was unwilling to repicrocate and he refused to provide the Socred caucus with official party status or form a coalition. When the PC government presented its December budget which included a controversial gas tax opposed by the Liberals and NDP, the Socreds demanded that the gas tax revenues be allocated to Quebec which Clark turned down. The Social Credit caucus abstained on the non-confidence motion, which led to the defeat of the Clark government and an election on February 18, 1980.
The abstention by Social Credit on this important vote contributed to the growing perception that the party had become irrelevant following the death of iconic leader Réal Caouette. Roy and all other Socred candidates were defeated in the 1980 federal election. The death of the Social Credit candidate in the riding of Frontenac, Quebec resulted in the postponement of the election in that riding to March 24. Roy sought to return to the House of Commons in the by-election, but lost to the Liberal candidate. Roy resigned from the leadership on November 1, 1980.
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