[2] He lectured at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montréal and Concordia University before starting his career as an elected official.

In 1995, he openly expressed scepticism about Premier Parizeau's strategy of holding a referendum on sovereignty during the Parti Québécois's first full year in government.

[5] Lucien Bouchard succeeded Parizeau as Parti Québécois leader and premier of Quebec on 26 January 1996, and appointed Facal as his parliamentary secretary three days later.

[12] Facal was a vocal opponent of the Clarity Act introduced by Stéphane Dion, the minister of intergovernmental affairs in the federal government of Jean Chrétien.

Among other things, the act gave the House of Commons of Canada the right to determine if the referendum question and the popular mandate for sovereignty were sufficiently clear.

[14] The Grand Council of the Crees initially opposed this legislation on the grounds that it denied aboriginal people the same right of self-determination that was claimed for Quebec.

[16] Lucien Bouchard announced his resignation as Parti Québécois leader and premier in January 2001, and Facal was one of the first PQ legislators to support Bernard Landry's successful bid to succeed him.

[22] In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., Facal indicated that Quebec would tighten procedures for issuing documents such as birth certificates.

"[23] Landry shuffled his cabinet on 30 January 2002, and named Facal as president of the treasury board and minister of state for administration and the public service.

Speaking at a news conference, he described the PQ's platform as being in some respects outdated, called for the party to shift focus from its traditional grassroots allies to a more middle-class electorate, and said that the Quebec governance model had created high debt and undue dependence on the state.

Premier Landry criticized Facal's remarks, defending his administration as "interventionist" with a mandate to ensure the province's wealth could be shared "between the regions, between the social classes, and between age groups.

[28] The Parti Québécois was defeated by Jean Charest's Liberals in the election that followed, and Facal formally resigned from cabinet with rest of the Landry ministry on 29 April 2003.

[33] During this period, Facal worked with former cabinet colleague François Legault to propose a new PQ policy agenda focused on economic growth and the more gradual promotion of sovereignty.

[36] The commission's report recommended higher electricity prices (with safeguards for low-income earners), an end to the province's university tuition freeze, and mandatory water meters to reduce wastage.

[38] Rumours circulated in late 2010 that Facal would join François Legault to launch a new right-of-centre political movement seeking to bypass Quebec's traditional dichotomy of federalism and sovereigntism.

[40] After leaving the Quebec legislature, Facal sometimes represented the Bloc Québécois on all-party panel discussions in Canada's English-language media.

Facal identified Lester Pearson as Canada's greatest prime minister in September 2005, describing him as "a throwback to the good old days when there were still some English-speaking Canadians committed to understanding Quebec."

[44] Facal co-authored an article in 2005 criticizing Jean Charest's proposal to introduce a form of proportional representation to Quebec's electoral system.

[45] Facal has criticized multiculturalist aspects of the Charest government's course in ethics and religious culture, which is taught to all students at the elementary and high school level.