Pétition contre Laurier.

In 1909 Laurier was able to build the Liberal Party a base in Quebec, which had remained a Conservative stronghold for decades due to the province's social conservatism and to the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, which distrusted the Liberals' anti-clericalism. The growing alienation of French-Canadians from the Conservatives due to the national Tory party's links with anti-French, anti-Catholic Orangemen in English Canada aided the Liberal Party.[4] These factors, combined with the collapse of the Conservative Party of Quebec, gave Laurier an opportunity to build a stronghold in French Canada and among Catholics across Canada.
Because Laurier believed in the separation of church and state, Roman Catholic bishops in Quebec repeatedly warned their parishioners never to vote for the man. Journalist and author Laurier LaPierre wrote in his 1996 biography of Laurier: "children were made to kneel and beg God that their parents not be damned should they have the temerity to vote for the Liberal candidate. When electors asked directly whom they should vote for, the cagey priests contented themselves with informing them that le ciel est bleu, l'enfer est rouge"[citation needed] – heaven is blue, hell is red.
However, Laurier had rather good relations with Pius X himself (Pope 1903-1914), and had complimented him during a diplomatic meeting. Some of the tension at the time stemmed from Pius's encyclical Vehementer Nos of 1906, which condemned strict Church-State separation in Émile Combes' secularist France.