May 20 marks the 30th anniversary of the 1980 Quebec referendum. This referendum by the people was the first about the place of Quebec within Canada, and whether Quebec should pursue a path toward sovereignty. The referendum was called by Quebec's Parti Quebecois (PQ) government, which strongly favoured secession from Canada.
In 1979, the Quebec government made public its constitutional proposal in a white paper entitled "Quebec-Canada: A New Deal. The Quebec Government Proposal for a New Partnership between Equals: Sovereignty-Association."
The province-wide referendum took place on Tuesday, May 20, 1980, and the proposal to pursue secession was defeated by a 59.56 percent to 40.44 percent margin.
The question posed on the ballot was:
"The Government of Quebec has made public its proposal to negotiate a new agreement with the rest of Canada, based on the equality of nations; this agreement would enable Quebec to acquire the exclusive power to make its laws, levy its taxes and establish relations abroad — in other words, sovereignty — and at the same time to maintain with Canada an economic association including a common currency; any change in political status resulting from these negotiations will only be implemented with popular approval through another referendum; on these terms, do you give the Government of Quebec the mandate to negotiate the proposed agreement between Quebec and Canada?"
BookCart Learning Activity
ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity to help teachers provide students with a one-stop method to learn more about Quebec's Separatist Movement and the Quebec Referendums.
You won't find this combination of inquiry-based learning activity support in any other K-12 resource, offering a variety of editor-selected resources, and ProQuest links to both presentation and written report models that student can use to successfully complete this activity. BookCarts save teachers and students time from searching and reinvest it in more time for critical thinking, writing, and presentation.
Teachers or librarians can copy "Quebec Separatist Movement" and any other BookCart from the Canadian or U.S. curriculum area BookCart collections by using the following procedure:
Click the BOOKCART ADMIN link at the top of the Teacher Edition.
Click the PROQUEST CARTS tab.
Scroll down the folder list on the left and click CANADIAN BOOKCARTS.
Type "Quebec Separatist Movement" in the Search box.
Click the COPY icon (middle one) in the ACTIONS column to the right of this title.
Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS.
To edit this BookCart for your students to use:
Click the first new BookCart Title with the prefix "COPY OF".
Delete "Copy of" and then type your name in the AUTHOR boxes and your initials in EMAIL.
Option: Type any additional ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS in the DESCRIPTION box.
Option: Edit the existing STUDENT DIRECTIONS in the Description box.
Scroll down and click SAVE.
Click RETURN TO MY LOCAL CARTS.
Traditional Research Learning Activity
Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words or a presentation of at least seven slides that cites at least three resources on the Canadian Separatist Movement. Students should address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you may add or substitute others):
What are the historic reasons for the Quebec Separatist Movement?
What were the benefits claimed by the Separatists?
What were the disadvantages of separation?
Why does the movement persist even today and how likely is it to succeed?
Pathfinder
Type "Quebec Separatist Movement" in the Search box
Use our custom ProQuest models for written or PowerPoint reports written and PowerPoint-style reports.
