À la prochaine fois: The 1980 Quebec Referendum

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Topic spans: 1976 - 1990

À la prochaine fois: The 1980 Quebec Referendum

Do you want "a new agreement with the rest of Canada, based on the equality of nations"? That was the heart of the question placed before the people of Quebec in the May 20, 1980 referendum. René Lévesque's Parti Québécois was asking Quebecers for a mandate to negotiate "sovereignty-association", an idea that inflamed federalists and separatists alike. CBC Archives looks back at the vote that divided a province and changed a nation.

11 television clips

15 radio clips

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Canada's first separatist premier

Broadcast Date: Nov. 15, 1976

Quebec is jubilant and the rest of Canada is incredulous. The Parti Québécois, led by charismatic Quebec sovereignty advocate René Lévesque, crushes Robert Bourassa's Liberals in a landmark provincial election. Lévesque campaigns on a platform of social democracy and "good government." But as we hear at the end of this CBC radio clip from his acceptance speech, his desire for a separate Quebec is far from forgotten: "I hope that, in consultation with our fellow citizens of Canada, we can arrive at a country."

Canada's first separatist premier

• René Lévesque began his career as a journalist in 1943. He took a job in 1944 reporting from overseas for the American army because he refused to work for English Canadian army bosses. In 1946, Lévesque moved on to a job with Radio-Canada. In 1952, he became head of news for Radio-Canada International. He also hosted Point de Mire, a popular political program that brought him considerable renown.

• Lévesque was a vocal participant in a CBC production strike in 1959, and afterward the Quebec Liberal party approached him about entering politics. He did. But Lévesque left the Liberals, and in November 1967 became the leader of the separatist party known as the Mouvement souveraineté-association, which mobilized various partisan groups into a combined and effective political force.

• The Parti Québécois was formed in 1968 following a merger of the Mouvement souveraineté-association and the Ralliement national parties. A third separatist party, the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale soon disbanded and its members also joined the PQ. The PQ was, and still is, a social democratic party that advocates political, economic and social independence for Quebec.

• (On the federal level, Quebec independence is championed by the Bloc Québécois, founded in 1991 by Lucien Bouchard. The Bloc shares many of the aims and policies of the PQ, and there are strong ties between the leaders and supporters of the two parties.)
• Quebec Liberal premier Robert Bourassa handed the separatists a massive defeat in 1973, capturing 102 of 110 seats in an election fought almost solely over the issue of Quebec independence.

• In 1976, despite plummeting popularity, Bourassa called an election two years before the end of his term. The premier said he wanted a mandate from voters before negotiations for the patriation of the Canadian Constitution began.

• A central plank of the PQ's campaign platform was a promise that it would hold a referendum before declaring Quebec independence. The controversial idea had been introduced in 1974 by Claude Morin, who became known as the father of étapisme (one step at a time.) The promise of a referendum was derided by some hard-line separatist, but vastly broadened the PQ's popular appeal.

• The 1976 election was a landslide success for Lévesque, and an unmitigated disaster for Bourassa. The PQ rocketed from six seats in the National Assembly to 71 (of 110) to form a majority government. Bourassa lost his own seat, and announced his resignation four days later.
• The CBC Archives site also features full topics on René Lévesque's Separatist Fight and Robert Bourassa: Political Survivor.