Editing Parti Québécois (section)

===Lévesque and the PQ's first government===
The PQ faced its first electoral test in the [[1970 Quebec general election|1970 provincial election]], winning seven seats. However, Lévesque was unable to get into the renamed National Assembly. Although it lost one seat in [[1973 Quebec general election|1973]], the decimation of the other parties, particularly the {{lang|fr|[[Union Nationale (Quebec)|Union Nationale]]|italic=no}}, allowed it to become the official opposition even though Lévesque was still unable to win a seat.

In the [[1976 Quebec general election|1976 provincial election]], the Parti Québécois won government for the first time and took 71 of the 110 seats available. Lévesque became the [[Premier of Quebec]]. This provided cause for celebration among many [[French-speaking Quebecer]]s, while it resulted in an acceleration of the migration of the province's [[English-speaking Quebecker|Anglophone]] population and related economic activity toward [[Toronto]].

The first PQ government was known as the "republic of professors" because of the large number of scholars in Lévesque's [[Executive Council of Quebec|cabinet]]. The PQ was the first government to recognize the rights of [[Aboriginal peoples in Quebec|Aboriginal peoples]] to self-determination, insofar as this self-determination did not affect the territorial integrity of Quebec. The PQ passed laws on public consultations and the financing of political parties, which ensured equal financing of political parties and limited contributions by individuals to $3000. However, the most prominent legacy of the PQ is the [[Charter of the French Language]] (Bill 101), a framework law which defines the linguistic primacy of French and seeks to make French the common public language of Quebec. It allowed the advancement of francophones towards management roles, until then largely out of their reach. Despite the fact that 85% of the population spoke French and most of them did not understand English, the language of management was English in most medium and large businesses. Critics, both Francophone and Anglophone, have however criticized the charter for restraining citizens' linguistic school choice, as it only permits anglophones to attend English-language schools funded by the state (private schools remained an option for those who could afford tuition). The Parti Québécois initiated the [[1980 Quebec referendum]] seeking a mandate to begin negotiation for [[sovereignty-association]].<ref>[https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-and-the-constitution-a-timeline-of-dead-ends "Quebec and the Constitution: A Timeline of Dead Ends", ''Montreal Gazette'', June 1, 2017.]</ref> It was rejected by 60 per cent of voters.

The party was re-elected in the [[1981 Quebec general election|1981 election]], but in November 1984 it experienced the most severe [[Parti Québécois Crisis, 1984|internal crisis]] of its existence.  Lévesque wanted to focus on governing Quebec rather than sovereignty, and also wanted to adopt a more conciliatory approach on constitutional issues. This angered the more ardent sovereigntists, known as the [[pur et dur|''purs et durs'']].  Lévesque was forced to resign as a result. In September 1985, [[1985 Parti Québécois leadership election|the party leadership election]] chose [[Pierre-Marc Johnson]] as his successor.

Despite its social democratic past, the PQ failed to gain admission into the [[Socialist International]], after the membership application was vetoed by the federal [[New Democratic Party (Canada)|New Democratic Party]].<ref name="LipsetGomez2004">{{cite book|author1=Seymour Martin Lipset|author2=Rafael Gomez|author3=[[Ivan Katchanovski]]|title=The paradox of American unionism: Why Americans like unions more than Canadians do, but join much less|url=https://archive.org/details/paradoxofamerica0000lips|url-access=registration|access-date=18 August 2012|year=2004|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0-8014-4200-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/paradoxofamerica0000lips/page/63 63]}}</ref><ref name="Finkel1997">{{cite book|author=Alvin Finkel|title=Our Lives: Canada After 1945|url=https://archive.org/details/ourlivescanadaaf0000fink|url-access=registration|access-date=18 August 2012|date=1 April 1997|publisher=James Lorimer & Company|isbn=978-1-55028-551-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/ourlivescanadaaf0000fink/page/200 200]}}</ref><ref name="Wiseman2007">{{cite book|author=Nelson Wiseman|title=In Search of Canadian Political Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TD5bmHBbDFIC&pg=PA176|access-date=18 August 2012|year=2007|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=978-0-7748-1388-4|page=176}}</ref>