The results yielded a nearly even split between the Yes and No sides with a strong majority of Quebec's non-francophone population voting "No" to secession. Parizeau announced his intention to resign his position the next day.
The Parti Québecois was founded in 1968 by René Lévesque, a former Liberal Party minister, who, along with a growing number of French-speaking Québecois, as the inhabitants of the province are known, had come to believe that the province must secede from the Canadian federation. Quebec is the largest in area of Canada's ten provinces and territories. Its population of just over seven million makes it the second most populous after Ontario. More than 80 percent of Québecois speak French as their first language and many of these feel isolated and oppressed in a North America dominated by English-speaking people. They believe that the only way to maintain their cultural identity is to separate from Canada and form their own country. For nearly two decades, Parizeau has been in the vanguard of those seeking secession.
The forces aligned against secession, however, are formidable and consist of a reported 60 percent of the population of Quebec, a vast majority of Canadians as a whole, and major powers in the media.
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