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Why Did Quebec Want To Separate From Canada In The 1970's

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The province of Quebec had wanted to separate from Canada for a decent amount of time. The thoughts of separation came in the late 1950’s and 1960’s, but was in full effect in the late 1960’s to the 1970’s, mostly due to the creation of the Parti Quebecois, created in 1968. It had become popular due to the party’s leader being René Lévesque, who was not only popular but influential too. In Canada, their urge to separate grew larger, for there were two moments in time, where they wanted to separate. In order for the province to separate, they had to have a referendum. The first time was in 1980 and the second time was in 1995. Both referendums were established by Quebec’s own political group, “Parti Quebecois”. A referendum is “a vote in …show more content…

Originally, it was led by Jacques Parizeau. Jacques Parizeau was not very popular compared to Lucien Bouchard. Lucien Bouchard was influential, for more votes came in during the period he reigned in and plenty more passionate about the issue. Bouchard made the elimination of the deficit and strengthening Quebec’s economy his priorities not sovereignty, so in case they do separate, they were prepared. Unlike Parizeau, who mainly focused on rallying on partnerships to gain from separation. The citizens of Quebec had believed in him more than Parizeau because he promised to assist them if the vote was a yes. Their belief for him was strong for Bouchard was the leader and founder of the Bloc Quebecois. Bloc Quebecois being a party built for Quebec to express their complaints and desires, along with sovereignty. When Parizeau was still the leader, he was quite busy in trying to promote the “yes” vote but, he could not grab much attention. The square in Quebec’s downtown area was not even fully populated. It shows how unpopular he was. Parizeau had made his schedules packed to promote, but citizens were not affected by him. Even changing his words for voters to vote yes, “Vote yes and I will negotiate a new partnership with Canada”. During the referendum, Jacques Parizeau made a comparison between the referendum to a hockey game in the third period. It was supposed to symbolize how they would win, but they were losing. It was believed to be the arrogance of Jacques Parizeau they were losing. Luckily, the reigns were given to Bouchard, someone more influential, who had almost made Quebec win the

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