Quebec’s Liberal Party fractured in 1967: Liberal legislator René Lévesque left the party and, the following year, founded the Parti Québécois (PQ), which held its first convention in October. The PQ’s program included, among other commitments, the following: French as the only official language, recognition of the rights of the minority, a unilateral declaration of independence, and an interventionist state that would nevertheless respect free enterprise. When the party won the provincial election in November 1976, a group proposing to break apart confederation found itself in power for the first time in Quebec. This created a constitutional crisis because Lévesque was committed to a referendum on “sovereignty-association.” Among the noteworthy acts of PQ governments have been the holding of two referendums, one in 1980 and a second in 1995, which resulted in the rejection of sovereignty, and the establishing of nationalist policies, such as the adoption in 1977 of the Charter of the French Language, commonly known as Bill 101, which declared Quebec a unilingual French society.
