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English vs. French?

Do you want "a new agreement with the rest of Canada, based on the equality of nations"? That was the heart of the question placed before the people of Quebec in the May 20, 1980 referendum. René Lévesque's Parti Québécois was asking Quebecers for a mandate to negotiate "sovereignty-association", an idea that inflamed federalists and separatists alike. CBC Archives looks back at the vote that divided a province and changed a nation.

The debates are over, and the wording of the Quebec referendum question has been formally adopted. Now the campaign is kicking into high gear, and sides are being drawn. One obvious division is between the province's French-speaking majority and its English-speaking minority, who -- with some very noteworthy exceptions -- are nearly unanimously opposed to sovereignty. Despite conciliatory gestures from René Lévesque, rhetoric from other separatist quarters is increasingly inflammatory, and, some say, downright racist. 
• Approximately 80 per cent of Quebecers consider French to be their mother tongue. About half of all Quebecers (English and French) are bilingual (1991 data).
• Leaders of both sides anticipated an almost unanimous No vote among anglophones, and adjusted their calculations accordingly. The Parti Québécois figured it needed 63 per cent of francophones to vote Yes to achieve a majority. Federalists hoped for a 60 per cent No vote from the general population. That would mean that a majority of francophones had rejected sovereignty-association.

• Kevin Drummond, who appears in this clip, was a high-profile English-speaking Liberal cabinet minister who switched sides to support sovereignty association. His decision shocked friends and relatives, and the mayor of Westmount called him a traitor. Drummond said he was simply a Quebec patriot who recognized that the Parti Québécois had a better proposal. "It's very seldom you get the chance to vote to eliminate one level of government," Drummond said. "It's a pain in the neck paying taxes to two governments."

• Referendum results were not tracked by the language of the voter, so there is no way of knowing how the vote broke down.
• There are a million French-speaking Canadians outside Quebec.

• René Lévesque's Parti Québécois set off a controversy in 1977 when it introduced Bill 101, a law that restricted the use of English and made French the dominant language in the province. Some hailed the move as a master plan to free Quebec from the economic dominance of the province's English minority. But it also made Anglo-Quebecers feel unwelcome and uncomfortable, and led to an exodus of anglophones from Quebec. For more on the language law, see our topic Fighting Words: Bill 101.

• The Richard riot mentioned at the beginning of this clip took place following a Montreal Canadiens home game on March 17, 1955. When legendary Quebec hockey star Maurice (Rocket) Richard hit a linesman, he was suspended by NHL President Clarence Campbell (often seen as a symbol of the disdained anglophone ruling elite.) The crowd was furious, and a riot spilled out onto the streets of Montreal. The event was a lightning rod for French-English tensions.

• This Sunday Morning item was broadcast shortly after the end of the debate over the wording of the referendum. That landmark event took place in the National Assembly and lasted 35 hours. The debate was carried in its entirety on the provincial government television channel, with edited versions aired in prime time by CBC and private networks. Some 600,000 people watched the televised debate nightly.

• Consensus opinion was that the Parti Québécois handily won the debate. The Liberals, who until a day earlier focused on preparing their beige paper, appeared disorganized and pedantic. They picked apart the question and branded the PQ as separatist.

• For the most part, the PQ didn't focus on the question, but presented an impassioned defence of its vision. They were much better organized, and arranged a lineup of many more speakers than the Liberals could present, controlling the airtime by a two-to-one margin. Levesque
Medium: Radio
Program: Sunday Morning
Broadcast Date: March 23, 1980
Guest(s): Kevin Drummond, Marc Laurendeau, Claude Morin
Reporter: Terence McKenna
Duration: 8:37

Last updated: April 10, 2013

Page consulted on April 10, 2013

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