Quebec independence referendum, 1980

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 independence 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, which was held in 1995, also failed, albeit by a smaller margin (50.58% to 49.42%).

Quebec, a province in the Canadian Confederation 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 province underwent a Quiet Revolution in the early 1960s. The Quiet Revolution was characterized by the effective secularization of society and the creation of a welfare state (état-providence). It also caused a realignment of provincial politics into federalist and sovereigntist factions, the latter calling for the separation of Quebec from Canada and its establishment as a sovereign nation state.

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 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.

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