Roman Catholics and French-speaking Canadians were also believed to be generally opposed to prohibition. A plebiscite in 1898, which showed Quebec to be the only province against prohibition, seemed to support the popular belief. However, matters were not as simple as the plebiscite result indicated. Catholics and francophones felt much the same about alcohol as did Protestants and anglophones. However, they tended to oppose prohibition for two reasons. First, they did not consider that beer or wine posed the threat that distilled alcohol did. Secondly, they feared the prohibition movement as a political device of certain Protestant churches, notably the Methodists. While they might oppose prohibition, they were quite prepared to support temperance societies and local option laws. In fact, one of the early temperance societies in Canada was La Societe de Temperance du diocΦse de MontrΘal, founded in 1841.
