# Quebec Sovereignty Movement The **Quebec Sovereignty Movement** is the long political project to make the French-speaking province of Quebec an independent or quasi-independent nation, organized chiefly through the provincial Parti Québécois and, federally, the Bloc Québécois. After the [[October Crisis]] of 1970 discredited the violent separatism of the FLQ, the movement turned to the ballot box, holding two referendums on sovereignty: the first in 1980 was defeated roughly 60–40, and the second in 1995 failed by the razor-thin margin of about 50.6 to 49.4 percent. The sovereignty question has been the central structural strain on Canadian federalism since Confederation, shaping constitutional fights (Meech Lake, Charlottetown, the post-1995 Clarity Act) and the careers of every prime minister in the era. It is the engine of the Quebec-question arc in the [[Canadian History Hub]] and the federal counterweight to the western grievance tracked under [[Western Alienation]]. > [!note] Stub > Phase 1 spine stub. Expand: René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois, the 1980 and 1995 referendums, the Clarity Act, the movement's decline and periodic revivals.