ON THIS DAY

June 1, 2015 — Jacques Parizeau, who nearly led Québec to sovereignty in the 1995 referendum as premier and head of the Parti Québécois, died at age 84 in Montreal. An economist by training, Parizeau was a key figure in the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s. Although his contributions to economic development, nation building and political debate are widely acknowledged in Québec, he is remembered in the rest of Canada for a period of political divisiveness and constitutional disruption.