page_title: Quebec sovereignty movement
hierarchical_section_title: Quebec sovereignty movement
context_page_description: The Quebec sovereignty movement is a political movement as well as an ideology of values, concepts and ideas that advocates independence for the Canadian province of Quebec.
  Several diverse political groups coalesced in the late 1960s in the formation of the Parti québécois, a provincial political party. Since 1968 the party has appealed for constitutional negotiations on the matter of provincial sovereignty, in addition to holding two provincial referendums on the matter. The first, which occurred in 1980, asked whether Quebecers wished to open constitutional negotiations with the federal government for the intended purpose of establishing a "sovereignty-association" pact between the province of Quebec and the rest of Canada. Approximately 60% of Quebec's voting public rejected the idea put forth by Parti québécois leader René Lévesque. The matter was dropped by the party for most of the 1980s, especially after the patriation of the Canadian constitution without the consent of the Parti québécois government, and the creation of the federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which enshrined the protection of the French language and French-Canadian culture in Canada.
context_section_description: The Quebec sovereignty movement (French: Mouvement souverainiste du Québec) is a political movement as well as an ideology of values, concepts and ideas that advocates independence for the Canadian province of Quebec.
  Several diverse political groups coalesced in the late 1960s in the formation of the Parti québécois, a provincial political party. Since 1968 the party has appealed for constitutional negotiations on the matter of provincial sovereignty, in addition to holding two provincial referendums on the matter. The first, which occurred in 1980, asked whether Quebecers wished to open constitutional negotiations with the federal government (and other provinces) for the intended purpose of establishing a "sovereignty-association" pact between the province of Quebec and the rest of Canada. Approximately 60% of Quebec's voting public rejected the idea put forth by Parti québécois leader René Lévesque. The matter was dropped by the party for most of the 1980s, especially after the patriation of the Canadian constitution without the consent of the Parti québécois government, and the creation of the federal Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which enshrined the protection of the French language and French-Canadian culture in Canada. In 1995, after two failed attempts by the Mulroney government to secure Quebec's ratification of amendments to the constitution, the Parti québécois held a second referendum, though on this occasion the question was whether one wished for the independence of the province of Quebec from the rest of Canada. The response was again in the negative, though this time by a far closer margin, with 50.58% against the proposal.
  Though the Parti Québécois has long spearheaded the sovereignty movement, it is not alone. Other minority provincial political parties, such as Option nationale and Québec solidaire, also supported sovereignty, but were not always supportive of the Parti québécois (the two parties merged in 2017). On the federal level, another party, the Bloc québécois, also support the independence of the province. The Quebec Liberal Party, Quebec's other primary political party until the 2018 provincial elections, is opposed to increasing political sovereignty for the province, but has also been historically at odds, on occasion, with various Canadian federal governments. Thus, the Quebec politic scene was effectively divided into two camps, principally opposed over the sovereignty issue, until 2018 (on that year the Coalition avenir Québec, an autonomist party, took power). Quebec sovereignty is politically opposed to the competing ideology of Canadian federalism.
  Most groups within this movement seek to gain independence through peaceful means, using negotiation-based diplomatic intervention, although fringe groups have advocated and used violent means. The overwhelming number of casualties came from attacks by the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), a militant organization which perpetrated a bombing and armed robbery campaign from 1963 to 1970, culminating in the October Crisis and the death of Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte. Since this time all mainstream sovereignist groups have sworn off violence, while extremist nationalist groups, though in the minority, support violent actions in the name of liberating Quebec from Canadian sovereignty.
  The primary mainstream political vehicle for the movement is the Parti Québécois, which has governed Quebec on multiple occasions. In 2012 it was elected to a minority government, in which its leader, Pauline Marois, became the first female Premier of Quebec. However, only eighteen months later, the PQ was defeated by the Liberal Party of Quebec in the 2014 election.
caption: The province of Quebec shown in red-orange