See also Bourassa, Robert; Business and the econ-
omy in Canada; Canada Act of 1982; Canadian Char-
ter of Rights and Freedoms; Chrétien, Jean; Lé-
vesque, René; Meech Lake Accord; Minorities in
Canada; Trudeau, Pierre.
Quebec referendum of 1980
The Event Quebec’s government asks voters if
the province should seek independence from
Canada
Date May 20, 1980
Place Quebec
The Quebec referendum of 1980 determined that a solid
majority of Quebecers opposed independence from Canada.
The vote did not resolve the sovereignist issue in Canadian
politics, but it revealed a willingness on both sides of the po-
litical spectrum to work within the nation’s constitutional
framework.
During the 1970’s, in the wake of what has been
calledla révolution tranquille(the quiet revolution),
there was a significant rise in French Canadian na-
tionalist sentiment. In Quebec, where over 80 per-
cent of the population consisted of native French
speakers, the Parti Québécois (PQ, or Québécois
Party) assumed a prominent role in the province’s
struggle against economic, political, and cultural in-
equities that decades of neglect had engendered.
However, the question of whether or not Quebec
should become sovereign, as the PQ leadership con-
tended, remained a divisive political issue.
Not wishing to alienate moderate voters, the PQ
government of Quebec shelved its plan to seek com-
plete independence from Canada and proposed to
negotiate with federal authorities the terms of a
more nuanced form of sovereignty-association. The
intent was to give Quebec full jurisdiction over its
taxes, laws, and foreign policy, while retaining close
economic and cultural ties with the Canadian feder-
ation. The purpose of the 1980 referendum was to
see if voters supported that approach.
During the months prior to the referendum,
leaders of the sovereignist camp sought to reassure
the population that a positive vote would not be used
to justify a unilateral declaration of independence
and that the results of future negotiations would be
presented to voters in the form of another referen-
dum. Canada’s minister of justice, Jean Chrétien,
and Claude Ryan, the leader of the provincial Lib-
eral Party, coordinated the efforts of the federalist
camp in its opposition to the sovereignist proposal.
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau also weighed in with
a promise to work for constitutional reform at the
federal level in the event that the referendum failed.
On May 20, 1980, Quebecers went to the urns in
record numbers and voted by a majority of 59.6 per-
cent (2,187,991 out of 3,673,842 valid ballots) not
to pursue negotiations on sovereignty-association
with the federal government. While this outcome
left many of the PQ’s supporters profoundly disap-
pointed, Premier René Lévesque remained confi-
dent that the sovereignist issue was not a closed
chapter in Canadian politics. In a concession speech
following the referendum, he announced before a
crowd of fervent supporters, “À la prochaine fois” (un-
til the next time).788 Quebec referendum of 1980 The Eighties in America
Claude Ryan, leader of the Quebec Liberal Party, votes “no” in the
Quebec referendum of 1980.(AP/Wide World Photos)