The Parti Québécois and Sources of Partisan Realignment in Contemporary Quebec

Abstract

The Parti Quebecois' 1976 electoral victory precipitated Canada's recent constitutional crisis. Four years later the PQ suffered the defeat of its cherished referendum proposal for sovereignty-association. Yet, within a year the party swept back into power in the subsequent provincial election. This dramatic reversal of electoral fortune suggests the strength and durability of the PQ's partisan base. Analyses of cross-sectional and panel survey data gathered in 1974, 1979, and 1980 confirm this, and indicate that the PQ has profited handsomely from both conversion and replacement processes catalyzed by low levels of national regime and community support. Although the PQ has not achieved its dream of a sovereign Quebec, its protracted campaign to do so has shifted the grounds of constitutional debate to a polarity of moderate and extreme change. This fact, and the party's strong electoral base, ensure that it will be a formidable force in Quebec politics for the foreseeable future.