A prominent sovereigntist was René Lévesque, who helped found the Parti Québécois (PQ) with like-minded separatists. The PQ proposed "sovereignty-association", a proposal for Quebec to be a sovereign nation-state while also sharing an economic partnership with Canada. The PQ had originally planned on declaring independence upon forming government, without putting it up for a vote in Quebec. Instead of doing this, the PQ chose to use a referendum so that the international community would be more likely to accept them as a truly independent nation.