Shortly before the 1980 referendum on Quebec secession, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau remarked, "Si le Canada est divisible, le Québec doit être aussi divisible." (This translates as, "If Canada is divisible, Quebec must also be divisible.") Apparently taking their inspiration from this statement, Shaw and co-author Lionel Albert had published a book on the subject by the end of the year. "Partition: The Price of Quebec’s Independence" outlined a plan for the excision of three slices of territory from a newly independent Quebec republic: