Québec's ruling political party, formed 1968, drawing support from the Ralliement National pour l'Indépendance du Québec (RIN) and Mouvement Souveraineté Association (MSA), both of which soon disbanded - the hubris resulting from the previous year's Vive le Québec Libre! helped cement things. They were, at first, a social-democratic party that advocated Quebec independence. The PQ rose from fringe party to winning the 1976 election, thanks to its charismatic leader/founder, René Lévesque, but by the 1980 referendum (see: neverendum), "independence" was softened to "souveraineté-association" (a vague pseudo-autonomy within Canada, an idea harkening back to the days of the MSA) - the PQ lost anyway. Current leader is the inexplicably-charismatic Lucien Bouchard; the leftist aspects were ditched long ago.