After Johnson’s death in 1968, Jean-Jacques Bertrand became Leader of the Union Nationale. Under his tenure, the party suffered from internal divisions and lost many of its followers to the emerging Parti Québécois. From 56 seats in the 1966 election, the strength of the party at the legislature went down to 17 seats in the 1970 election. In the 1973 election, a few months after Bertrand’s death and under the leadership of Gabriel Loubier, the party was completely shut out of the legislature for the first time since its founding in 1935.