History of Quebec - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Quebec
1980 referendum[edit] 1980 referendum[]
In 1976, the separatist under was elected, and formed the first separatist government of the province. The Parti Québécois promised in its campaign that it would not declare independence without obtaining a mandate through a . The mandate of the Parti Québécois was to govern the province well, and not to bring about independence. The first years of the Parti Québécois government were very productive and the government passed progressive laws that were well accepted by the majority of the population, such as French language protection laws, a law on the financing of political parties, laws for compensating road accident victims, for protecting farm land, and many other social-democracy-type laws. Even opponents of the Parti Québécois occasionally acknowledged that the Party governed the province well.
On May 20, 1980, the was held on , but was rejected by a majority of 60 percent (59.56% "No", 40.44% "Yes"). Polls showed that the overwhelming majority of anglophones and immigrants voted against, and that francophones were almost equally divided.1995 referendum[edit] 1995 referendum[] Downtown Montreal today, seen from .
On October 30, 1995, a for Quebec sovereignty was rejected by a slim margin (50.58% "No", 49.42% "Yes"). Instrumental leaders of the Quebec separatist side were and Quebec Premier . Bouchard had left the senior ranks of Prime Minister 's government to form Canada's first federal separatist party (the ) in 1991 and had become the leader of the Opposition after the . He campaigned heavily for the "Yes" side against Prime Minister , a major proponent of the federalist "No" side. Parizeau, a longtime separatist who had played an important role in the , promised a referendum for sovereignty in his electoral campaign leading up to the , which had earned him a majority government in the province. In the aftermath of the referendum, he faced criticism when he blamed the loss of the referendum on "" in his concession speech. Parizeau resigned as Premier and as leader of the Parti québécois the day after his controversial speech, claiming he had always planned to do so in the case of separatist defeat, and Bouchard left federal politics to replace him in January 1996.
Federalists accused the sovereigntist side of asking a vague, overcomplicated question on the ballot. Its English text read as follows: Do you agree that Québec should become sovereign after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership within the scope of the bill respecting the future of Québec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995?
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DA: 41 PA: 38 MOZ Rank: 67
