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This article aims to study the transformations in Quebec's political culture brought about by the debates surrounding the patriation of the Constitution proposed by Ottawa in the wake of the 1980 referendum on sovereigntyassociation. Specifically, it seeks to trace the changes in the way actors approached the constitutional debates once the Parti Québécois government lost the initiative to the Liberal government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Bridging the gap between a politician-centred and a civil society-centred approach, this paper sheds new light on the interactions between pressure groups and elected officials in the context of constitutional debates. As a broad and complex subject, Quebec's political culture is undergoing at least two major transformations, catalyzed by the "crisis" of the patriation of the Constitution. First, section 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms gives a particular color to the Quebec language debate and crystallizes the opposition between supporters of unilingualism and bilingualism, in addition to giving concrete expression to the intertwining of linguistic and constitutional issues. Second, the decline of the dualist ideal, which has been undermined for years by some Quebec sovereignists, ethnocultural community groups, and Indigenous people, is being precipitated by the patriation project in general and the "Night of the Long Knives" in particular. The decay of this structuring representation of the Quebec political field is giving way to a new one, the "distinct society.". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]