1980 Quebec referendum

The Government of Quebec has made public its proposal to negotiate a new agreement with the rest of Canada, based on the equality of nations; this agreement would enable Quebec to acquire the exclusive power to make its laws, levy its taxes and establish relations abroad - in other words, sovereignty - and at the same time to maintain with Canada an economic association including a common currency; any change in political status resulting from these negotiations will only be implemented with popular approval through another referendum; on these terms, do you give the Government of Quebec the mandate to negotiate the proposed agreement between Quebec and Canada?

Location

Quebec

Date

May 20, 1980

Results
	Votes	%
Yes	1,485,852	7001404400000000000♠40.44%
No	2,187,991	7001595600000000000♠59.56%
Valid votes	3,673,843	7001982600000000000♠98.26%
Invalid or blank votes	65,011	7000174000000000000♠1.74%
Total votes	3,738,854	100.00%
Registered voters/turnout	4,367,584	7001856009999900000♠85.6%

The 1980 Quebec referendum was the first referendum in Quebec on the place of Quebec within Canada and whether Quebec should pursue a path toward sovereignty. The referendum was called by Quebec's Parti Québécois (PQ) government, which advocated secession from Canada.

The province-wide referendum took place on Tuesday, May 20, 1980, and the proposal to pursue secession was defeated by a 59.56 percent to 40.44 percent margin.

A second referendum on sovereignty was held in 1995.

Quebec, a province in Canada since its foundation in 1867, has always been the sole majority French-speaking province. Long ruled by forces (such as the Union Nationale) that focused on affirmation of the province's French and Catholic identity within Canada, the Quiet Revolution of the early 1960s prompted a surge in civic and economic nationalism, and voices calling for the separation of the province and the establishment of a nation state.

Among these was René Lévesque, who help found the Parti Québécois (PQ) with like-minded groups seeking independence from Canada. The PQ proposed "sovereignty-association", a proposal for Quebec to be a sovereign nation-state while requiring (hence the hyphen) an economic partnership with what remained of Canada. The PQ had intended to declare independence upon forming government, citing the principle of parliamentary supremacy. This was changed in the party platform after internal lobbying by Claude Morin to a referendum strategy to better allow such a declaration to be internationally recognized.

The PQ won the 1976 election in a surprise rout of the governing Quebec Liberals of Robert Bourassa on a general platform of good government and the promise of holding a referendum on sovereignty-association during their first term. In government, the PQ implemented a number of popular reforms to longstanding issues in the province, while emphasizing its nationalist credentials with laws such as Bill 101, which reinforced French as the province's official language.

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