remarks, many believed he had a valid point about
the irresponsibility of mainstream media. The un-
ending criticism he drew apparently ended his polit-
ical career, thus revealing again the power and influ-
ence of the media.
Further Reading
Quayle, Dan. Standing Firm. New York: Harper-
Collins, 1994.
Woodward, Bob, and David S. Broder.The Man Who
Would Be President: Dan Quayle. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1992.
Thomas W. Buchanan
See also Bush, George H. W.; Elections in the
United States, 1992; Gulf War;Murphy Brown.
Quebec referendum of 1995
The Event Quebec votes against secession from
Canada
Date October 30, 1995
Place Quebec Province, Canada
The Quebec referendum of 1995, sponsored by the Parti
Québécois government of Jacques Parizeau, was the second
referendum on Quebec sovereignty to be held in fifteen years.
Voters rejected the plan, but only by the narrowest of mar-
gins.
Historians cite a variety of reasons for the resur-
gence of French Canadian nationalism in the early
1990’s. Prominent among them were the ambivalent
outcome of Quebec’s first referendum on sover-
eignty in 1980; Quebec’s opposition to the Constitu-
tion Act of 1982; controversial Supreme Court rul-
ings on Quebec’s language and commerce laws; and
failure of the Meech Lake (1987) and Charlottetown
accords (1992).
On September 12, 1994, Jacques Parizeau, leader
of the Parti Québécois and longtime advocate of the
sovereignty movement, was elected premier of Que-
bec. During the electoral campaign, he had prom-
ised voters that, if elected to the premiership, he
would formulate a new plan for Quebec sovereignty
and organize a referendum on the issue. He was
joined in his effort by Lucien Bouchard, leader of
the Bloc Québécois, and Mario Dumont, leader of
Action Démocratique du Québec. On June 12, 1995,
the three men drafted the outline of a new bill and
agreed on a mutually acceptable platform for the
referendum. Bill 1, the so-called Sovereignty Bill,
was placed before the province’s National Assembly
in early September with a referendum scheduled for
October 30.
The campaigns for and against secession received
heavy media coverage and were emotionally charged.
Quebec Liberal Party leader Daniel Johnson, Labor
Minister Lucienne Robillard, and Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien were among the most outspoken op-
ponents of the plan. Each contended that the refer-
endum question was confusing, even disingenuous.
With the future of Quebec at stake, Canadians
were wrought with anxiety on referendum day. Voter
participation rose to a surprising 93.5 percent. In
the final tally, 50.58 percent of Quebec’s citizens
voted against the government’s plan. The measure
was thus defeated by less than 1 percent of the popu-
lar vote. In a referendum night concession speech,
Premier Parizeau sparked indignation when he
blamed his defeat on “money and the ethnic vote”
yet failed to acknowledge that approximately 40 per-
cent of the francophone community had rejected
his party’s sovereignty plan.
Impact Following the referendum, Parizeau re-
signed as Quebec premier and was replaced by
Bouchard. Most observers felt that the 1995 referen-
dum had failed to resolve any of the tough political
issues at hand. In a gesture of reconciliation,
Chrétien’s federal government hastened to recog-
nize Quebec as a “distinct society” with its own lan-
guage, culture, and legal system. However, Canada’s
parliament also passed the Clarity Act of 2000, stipu-
lating that any future referendum on independence
must be founded on a clear and unambiguous ques-
tion and must obtain a clear majority approval be-
fore negotiations with the federal government could
be initiated.
Further Reading
Cardinal, Mario.Breaking Point Quebec/Canada: The
1995 Referendum. Montreal: Bayard Canada Books,
2005.
Jedwab, Jack, et al.À la prochaine? Une Rétrospective des
référendums Québécois de 1980 et 1995. Montreal:
Éditions Saint-Martin, 2000.
Young, Robert Andrew. The Struggle for Quebec:
From Referendum to Referendum?Montreal: McGill-
Queen’s University Press, 1999.
Jan PendergrassThe Nineties in America Quebec referendum of 1995 695