Editing Pierre Trudeau (section)

=== 1980 Quebec referendum ===
The first challenge Trudeau faced upon re-election was the [[1980 Quebec referendum|1980 Quebec sovereignty referendum]], called by the Parti Québécois government of René Lévesque. Trudeau immediately initiated federal involvement in the referendum, reversing the Clark government's policy of leaving the issue to the Quebec Liberals and [[Claude Ryan]]. He appointed Jean Chrétien as the nominal spokesman for the federal government, helping to push the "Non" cause to working-class voters who tuned out the intellectual Ryan and Trudeau. Unlike Ryan and the Liberals, he refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the referendum question, and noted that the "association" required consent from the other provinces.{{sfn|English (2009)|p=454}}

In the debates in the legislature during the campaign leading up to the referendum, Lévesque said that Trudeau's middle name was Scottish, and that Trudeau's aristocratic upbringing proved that he was more Scottish than French.<ref name="CBC_Reflections_20010923">{{Cite AV media| publisher = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Melbar Entertainment Group| people = McKenna, Terence (Director), [[Ann-Marie MacDonald]] (Contributor), Michael Bliss (Contributor), [[Jean Chrétien]] (Contributor), [[Joe Clark]](Contributor)| series = Biography| title = Reflections: The Trudeau Legacy| date = September 23, 2001}}</ref> A week prior to the referendum, Trudeau delivered one of his most well-known speeches, in which he extolled the virtues of federalism and questioned the ambiguous language of the referendum question. He described the origin of the name as Canadian.<ref name="CBC_Reflections_20010923" /> Trudeau promised a new constitutional agreement should Quebec decide to stay in Canada, in which English-speaking Canadians would have to listen to valid concerns made by the Québécois.{{sfn|English (2009)|p=459}} On May 20, sixty percent of Quebeckers voted to remain in Canada. Following the announcement of the results, Trudeau said that he "had never been so proud to be a Quebecker and a Canadian".{{sfn|English (2009)|p=459}}