to 1980, five MNAs either crossed the floor, moved to federal politics or retired. The party bottomed out in 1980, when Biron resigned as leader and left the party to sit as an independent, and then joined the Parti Québécois a few months later. Michel Le Moignan, the MNA for the district of Gaspé, took over as interim leader. This left the once-mighty party with only five seats. Collapse and deregistration On January 9, 1981, federal Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Roch LaSalle was acclaimed leader of the Union Nationale. In the April 1981 provincial election, the party lost all of its seats, and would never elect another MNA. La Salle resigned as leader and returned to federal politics—winning the by-election created by his resignation from parliament a few months earlier. In 1982, lawyer Jean-Marc Beliveau, who had been appointed interim leader by the party executive following Lasalle's resignation, was elected Union Nationale leader by acclamation at what would be the party's final leadership convention. The party was $150,000 in debt, but appeared poised to return to the National Assembly when one public opinion poll in October 1984 showed it with 18% public support, its best showing since 1976, in the wake of the 1984 federal election in which the Progressive Conservatives won Quebec and the country in a landslide. However, Béliveau contested a June 3, 1985 by-election in Trois-Rivières and was defeated, finishing third with 16% of the vote. He tried to merge the UN with the fledgling Progressive Conservative Party of Quebec, but negotiations came to nothing. In September, after a group of veteran party members demanded his immediate resignation, Beliveau stepped down as leader. The party appointed André Léveillé, a minister in the Johnson government, as interim party leader on October 28, 1985. Earlier, Léveillé had announced the formation of his own Parti du progrès, which he subsequently abandoned. Léveillé led the party into the December 2, 1985, general election. However, the party ran only 19 candidates, none of whom came close to being elected. It only won 0.23% of the popular vote, its worst showing ever. This would prove to be the final general election in which the Union Nationale fielded candidates. By the 1980s, the Union Nationale no longer could rely on a significant get-out-the-vote organization or attract any media attention. The electorate was increasingly polarized over the constitutional issue, with conservative-leaning voters split