Following the plebiscite, Public Works minister Pierre Joseph Arthur Cardin quit the King cabinet to protest the possibility that the "Zombies" might go overseas. A number of other Quebec Liberal MPs also left the party in 1942 over the conscription issue, many of whom joined the Bloc populaire canadien when it was formed in the fall of 1942 to campaign against the government. The Defence Minister, Colonel James Ralston resigned in protest over King's unwillingness to send the Zombies overseas, but King refused to accept his resignation.