The 1980 Quebec independence referendum was the first referendum in Quebec on whether Quebec should make a deal with Canada that would allow the province to have more control over its own laws, government, and trade agreements with other countries. The referendum was called by Quebec's Parti Québécois (PQ) government. The PQ wanted Quebec to be independent from Canada.
The province-wide referendum took place on Tuesday, May 20, 1980, and the proposal to request more independence from Canada was defeated. 59.56 percent of voters voted against the referendum question and 40.44 percent voted in favour of it.
A second referendum on sovereignty in 1995 also failed, but by a smaller margin (50.58% to 49.42%).
Background
Quebec, a province in the Canadian Confederation since its foundation in 1867, has always been the only province where the most commonly spoken language is French. Quebec has also historically been very connected to French culture and the Catholic Church, which was seen as the national church when the French colonists began to settle in what became Quebec. Many Quebecois people value their French identity and culture. In the early 1960s, Quebec went through a Quiet Revolution where politicians separated the role of the church from the role of government organisations in a process called secularisation. During this time period, political groups in the province began to identify as federalists (who wanted to be a part of a unified Canada) and sovereigntists (who wanted Quebec to become a sovereign nation state, separate from Canada).
A prominent sovereigntist was René Lévesque, who helped found the Parti Québécois (PQ) with like-minded separatists. The PQ proposed "sovereignty-association", a proposal for Quebec to be a sovereign nation-state while also sharing an economic partnership with Canada. The PQ had originally planned on declaring independence upon forming government, without putting it up for a vote in Quebec. Instead of doing this, the PQ chose to use a referendum so that the international community would be more likely to accept them as a truly independent nation.
The PQ won the 1976 election, beating the governing Quebec Liberals. The PQ campaign platform included a promise to hold a referendum on sovereignty-association during their first term. In government, the PQ created a number of popular reforms to long-term issues in the province, including francophone nationalist laws such as Bill 101, which reinforced French as the province's official language.
The PQ's beliefs were in conflict with the federal Liberal government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who did not agree with Quebec sovereignty. Instead, Trudeau urged Quebecers to seek empowerment at the federal level through reforms that provided for bilingualism and protection for individual rights. Trudeau was considered such a major opponent to Quebec sovereignty that Lévesque refused to call a referendum while Trudeau was the Prime Minister.
The Progressive Conservatives led by Joe Clark won a minority government in the May 22 1979 federal election. Clark's minority government made a point to not have the federal government be involved in the referendum, leaving the task of representing federalist voices to Claude Ryan, the new leader of the Quebec Liberal Party.
On June 21, 1979, Lévesque announced the promised referendum would occur in the spring of 1980, and that the question on the ballot would be announced before Christmas.
Lead-up to the Referendum Campaign
On November 1, 1979, the Quebec government released its constitutional proposal in a white paper titled Québec-Canada: A New Deal. The Québec Government Proposal for a New Partnership Between Equals: Sovereignty-Association.
A dramatic change occurred in Ottawa on December 11, 1979, when the Clark government unexpectedly lost a vote of confidence on a budget bill, forcing a federal election. Three days afterward, Trudeau announced his return as leader of the Liberals. Polls showed Clark losing handily.