page_title: Quebec sovereignty movement
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Quebec sovereignty movement / Overview / Background
caption_attribution_description: English (en): Linguistic map of the province of Quebec (source: Statistics Canada, 2006 census) &#160;&#160; francophone majority, less than 33% anglophone &#160;&#160; francophone majority, more than 33% anglophone &#160;&#160; anglophone majority, less than 33% francophone &#160;&#160; anglophone majority, more than 33% francophone &#160;&#160; allophone majority (indigenous) &#160;&#160; data not available français (fr): Carte linguistique de la province du Québec (source de données: Statistique Canada, recensement de 2006) &#160;&#160; majorité francophone, moins de 33&#160;% d'anglophones &#160;&#160; majorité francophone, plus de 33&#160;% d'anglophones &#160;&#160; majorité anglophone, moins de 33&#160;% de francophones &#160;&#160; majorité anglophone, plus de 33&#160;% de francophones &#160;&#160; majorité allophone (autochtones) &#160;&#160; données non disponibles
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: Tension between the francophone, Catholic population of Quebec and the largely anglophone, Protestant population of the rest of Canada has been a central theme of Canadian history, shaping the early territorial and cultural divisions of the country that persist to this day. Supporters of sovereignty for Quebec believe that the current relationship between Quebec and the rest of Canada does not reflect Quebec's best social, political and economic development interests. Moreover, many subscribe to the notion that without appropriately recognizing that the people of Quebec are culturally distinct, Quebec will remain chronically disadvantaged in favour of the English-Canadian majority. There is also the question of whether the French language can survive within the geographic boundaries of Quebec and where French-Canadian society and culture fits into what is an increasingly multicultural country. Separatists and Independentists are generally opposed to some aspects of the federal system in Canada and do not believe it can be reformed in a way that could satisfy the needs of Quebec's French-speaking majority. A key component in the argument in favour of overt political independence is that new legislation and a new system of governance could best secure the future development of modern Québécois culture. Additionally, there is wide-ranging debate about defence, monetary policy, currency, international-trade and relations after independence and whether a renewed federalism would give political recognition to the Quebec nation (along with the other 'founding' peoples, including Canadian First Nations, the Inuit, and the British) could satisfy the historic disparities between these cultural "nations" and create a more cohesive and egalitarian Canada.
  Several attempts at reforming the federal system in Canada have thus far failed because of, particularly, the conflicting interests between Quebec's representatives and the other provincial governments' representatives. There is also a degree of resistance throughout Quebec and the rest of Canada to re-opening a constitutional debate, in part because of the nature of these failures—not all of which were the result simply of sovereignists and federalists not getting along. To cite one case, in a recent round of constitutional reform, Elijah Harper, an aboriginal leader from Manitoba, was able to prevent ratification of the agreement in the provincial legislature, arguing that the accord did not address the interests of Canada's aboriginal population. This was a move to recognize that other provinces represent distinct cultural entities, such as the aboriginal population in Canada's Prairies or the people of Newfoundland (which contains significant and culturally distinct French-Canadian, English-Canadian, Irish-Canadian and Aboriginal cultures- and many more).
caption: Linguistic map of Quebec. Blue means a large French majority, green a small French majority, yellow a small English majority, red a large English majority
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