Television had recently been introduced to the Quebec National Assembly, and the legislative debate on the referendum question was scheduled for prime time live viewing on March 4, 1980. The debate lasted two weeks, and the result was a PQ success and a disaster for the provincial Liberals. The PQ Cabinet, coordinated by House Leader Claude Charron, provided detailed outlines of their files and the benefits they said sovereignty would provide them. The Liberals did not consider that the television audience would view their quick and taunting retorts about the referendum question to be insubstantial compared to the lengthy and detailed speeches of PQ members. The Liberals seemed to lack preparation and Ryan, unaware of the television cameras, was caught yawning on a few occasions during Liberal interventions.
Polls released after the debates showed the Yes and No side roughly even, with a majority among Francophone voters for the "Yes" side.
Less helpful to the "Yes" campaign was a speech by former television presenter Lise Payette to a committee in Montreal, where she mocked what she viewed as the "No" side's complacency by imagining a person who planned on voting "No" as a "Yvette -" a docile schoolgirl from pre-Quiet Revolution schoolbooks. Payette also used this as a general theme in the legislature. Payette stated that Ryan wanted a Quebec full of "Yvettes" and that his wife, Madeline Ryan, was an Yvette. Lise Bissonnette, a popular journalist, responded to Payette's personal attack wrote a sarcastic editorial that compared Payette's television career with Mme Ryan's accomplishments in the public and private sector.
Payette apologized during the legislative debate, but the remark and the editorial sparked a movement. On March 30, a group of 1,700 women, including Madeline Ryan, held the "brunch des Yvettes" at the Château Frontenac in Quebec City. The movement grew until a rally at the Montreal Forum on April 7 when 14,000 women denounced the minister's declarations about women and manifested their support for the "No" side.
On April 15, Lévesque announced before the National Assembly the referendum would occur on May 20, 1980. The same day, on the opening of the House of Commons, Trudeau announced that the Government of Canada would not negotiate sovereignty-association under any circumstances, as he considered the question too vague and the Canadian government's authority too uncertain to do so. He also stated that the question was too vague to give Lévesque and the PQ any mandate to declare independence, making any result from a "Yes" vote impossible; in contrast, he offered that a "No" vote would lead to constitutional change. His position was supported by Clark and national NDP leader Ed Broadbent.
The "Yes" campaign was, in the initial stages, low key. It focused on gaining broad acceptance of sovereignty-association through specialized "regroupments" that would be presented with special certificates at ceremonies led by Lévesque and other cabinet ministers. The regroupments were seen as an attempt to show broad support for the movement and create conversations at the ground level, however, the attempt to create them in some heavily Federalist professions, such as lawyers, prompted a severe backlash.
The "No" campaign, led by Ryan, was run as a traditional election campaign, with Ryan campaigning during the day and making speeches in local hockey arenas across rural Quebec.
Controversially, the Canadian government became involved on its own accord in the referendum despite the provisions of the provincial "Referendum Act", which tightly restricted all campaigning to the designated "Yes" and "No" committees with set budgets. Canadian government politicians made appearances coordinated by Minister of Justice Jean Chrétien and Marc Lalonde, mainly speculating on the economic uncertainty a "Yes" vote could bring. Chrétien argued that prominent PQ member Claude Morin would sacrifice Canada's oil and national gas price to drive in an ambassadors' Cadillac. Lalonde argued that old age pensions were directly threatened by a "Yes" vote. Though initially reluctant, Ryan started to accept and welcome the Canadian government's help, and continued to speak across Quebec.
The referendum prompted an unheard-of political mobilization, and the campaign was seen as a traumatic event in Quebec, as the hard choice between "Yes" and "No" shattered the nationalist consensus that had existed since the Quiet Revolution.
On May 14, six days before the vote, Trudeau made his final appearance at a packed Paul Sauvé Arena, where the PQ had celebrated their victory in 1976. Trudeau attacked the "Yes" campaign for not asking a clear question, and stated that a "Yes" vote was a dead end, given that the rest of Canada was not bound by the question and that it was too vague to pursue independence if negotiations were refused.
Trudeau then stated that he would interpret a vote for the "No" as a mandate to renew federalism and change the constitution, putting his MPs' seats on the line if he were to fail to keep this promise. Addressing himself to Canadians outside Quebec on behalf of his MPs, Trudeau challenged English Canada that change would have to occur and that the referendum could not be interpreted as an endorsement of the status quo.
After this Trudeau hit an emotional high note, invoking a remark by Lévesque days earlier that he was showing his "Elliott" side during the campaign. Trudeau detailed the story of his parents, who had both had many ancestors in Quebec, and remarked that his full name was both a Québécois and a Canadian name. Trudeau then began to list members of the Parti Québécois who had Irish or English last names. The riposte brought the crowd to an uproar, and Trudeau exited to chants of "Elliott."
The speech, which prompted Morin to wonder if his mind was changed, was seen as the death knell of the "Yes" camp, despite Lévesque's attempts to cast doubt over Trudeau's words.
After the lopsided defeat, a visibly emotional Lévesque addressed his supporters, many of whom were shown on screen in tears at the result. Lévesque began his concession speech by saying "My dear friends, if I understand you correctly, you're saying: 'until next time.'" In the speech, he called the Canadian government's involvement in the campaign "scandalously immoral," and emphasized that the result must be accepted and that it was now the Canadian government's responsibility to provide the changes to the constitution that Trudeau had promised. Lévesque ended by asking the audience to sing "Gens du Pays" for him, as he did not have any voice left.
Claude Ryan's speech was later in the evening. After refusing to let Jean Chrétien use the microphone to address those gathered, he proceeded to demand an election be called and listed every riding that had voted for the "No" side. The speech was generally seen as callous and harsh, especially after the emotional crowd scenes broadcast during Lévesque's speech. Trudeau addressed the country afterward with a more conciliatory tone, emphasizing the need for unity after the hurt feelings and strained friendships that had been caused by the referendum. The next morning, Chrétien was tasked with creating a provincial consensus.
Maximum amount authorized by referendum law: $2,122,257 ($0.50/voter x 4,244,514 voters)
"No" Committee:
"Yes" Committee:
After the referendum, Trudeau acted upon his promise by calling together the provincial premiers in a first ministers' conference. The meeting showed signs of deadlock, and Lévesque surprised observers by uniting with the dissident premiers, who warmly received his decentralist views. Facing a lack of cooperation from the premiers, Trudeau then announced his intention to unilaterally patriate the constitution from the United Kingdom and have a charter of rights and constitutional amending formula approved by national referendum.