Formerly a member of the Liberal Party of Quebec, René Lévesque quit the party with a few hundred others after his proposal of a sovereign Quebec associated to the rest of Canada was rejected during a party convention. The MSA quickly began to move for a merger of all the independence movements in Quebec, which at the time were the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale (RIN) and the Ralliement national (RN).
In January 1968, the MSA published the manifesto Option Québec. From April 19 to 21, it held its first Congrès d'orientation with its 7300 members. The convention led to the publication of a groundwork document entitled Ce pays qu'on peut bâtir (This country that we can build) and the decision to create a new political party dedicated to sovereignty-association.
From October 11 to 14, the MSA held its first national congress in Quebec City. The merger of the MSA and the RN created the Parti Québécois (PQ). René Lévesque was elected president and Gilles Grégoire vice-president.
On October 26 Pierre Bourgault, leader of the RIN, dissolved the party and invited its members to join the PQ.
Jacques Parizeau joined the party on September 19, 1969, and Jérôme Proulx of the Union nationale did the same on November 11 of the same year.
At the 1970 provincial election on April 29, the PQ elected its first seven members of the National Assembly: Robert Burns, Claude Charron, Guy Joron, Camille Laurin, Marcel Léger, Lucien Lessard, and Charles Tremblay. René Lévesque was defeated in Mont-Royal by the Liberal André Marchand.
The PQ elected 71 candidates in 1976, to the general astonishment of all of Quebec and Canada. With one of the highest voting turnouts in Quebec history, 41.4 per cent of Quebecers gave their vote to the PQ. The PQ formed a majority government.
On August 26, 1977, the PQ passed two important laws: the law on the financing of political parties which prohibits contributions by corporations and unions and set a limit on individual donations and the Charter of the French Language.
On May 17, Robert Burns quit the government, telling the press he was convinced that the PQ was going to loose its referendum and fail to be re-elected afterwards.
At its seventh national convention on June 1 to 3, 1979, the sovereignists adopted their strategy for the coming referendum. The PQ then began an aggressive effort to promote sovereignty-association by providing details of how the economic relations with the rest of Canada would include free trade between Canada and Quebec, common tariffs against imports, and a common currency. In addition, joint political institutions would be established to administer these economic arrangements.
The sovereignty-association project was proposed to the population of Quebec in a referendum held on May 20, 1980. The project was rejected by 60 per cent of the Quebec electorate.
In September, the PQ created a national committee of anglophones and a liaison committee with ethnic minorities.
At the April 13, 1981, general election, the PQ was put in power with a stronger majority than in 1976, obtaining 49.2 per cent of the vote and electing 80 candidates.
The 1980 referendum loss laid the groundwork for the 1995 referendum, which asked only if Quebec should offer a new economic and political partnership to the rest of Canada before declaring independence. An English translation of the question reads, "We, the people of Quebec, declare it our own will to be in full possession of all the powers of a state; to levy all our taxes, to vote on all our laws, to sign all our treaties and to exercise the highest power of all, conceiving, and controlling, by ourselves, our fundamental law."
And in this case, the rest of Canada's acceptance would not have been a requirement for sovereignty. This time, the separatists lost in a very close vote: 50.6 per cent to 49.4 per cent, or only 53 498 votes out of more than 4 700 000 votes cast. However, after the vote many within the separatist camp were very upset that the vote broke down heavily along language lines. Approximately 90 per cent of English speakers and allophones (mostly immigrants and first-generation Quebecers whose native language was neither French nor English) Quebecers voted No, while almost 60 per cent of francophones of all origins voted Yes, and 82 per cent of Quebecers are francophone.
Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau, whose government supported souverainisme, attributed the defeat of the resolution to "l'argent et le vote ethnique" (money and the ethnic vote) rather than to a failure to address the needs and concerns of anglophone and allophone residents of Quebec. Parizeau quickly disavowed this remark as unfortunate and acknowledged that it was justly disapproved. In his remarks on election night he did also state that achieving sovereignty would depend on increasing sovereignist support among francophones rather than among anglophones and allophones. However, by 2003 Parizeau was promoting the view that support for sovereignty could be won among ethnic minorities.
While opponents of sovereignty were pleased with their referendum victory, most recognized that there are still deep divides within Quebec and problems with the relationship between Quebec and the rest of Canada.
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