Parti acadien

As a result, the Parti Acadien advocated the formation of a separate Acadian province within Canada, a proposition that would require an amendment to the Canadian Constitution following a provincial referendum.

Their platform had several socialist policies, though officially their goal was to work for reforms using the already-existing framework of New Brunswick law.

They also explained that they were not anti-anglophone per se, but felt that the capitalist system in place in the province favoured the predominantly English south.

However, Richard Hatfield and the governing Progressive Conservatives also promoted a platform that promised to increase the role of the Acadian people and culture within the province.

A convention of Parti Acadien supporters, SANB members and other Acadians in 1979 produced a split on the issue of whether to vote to secede from New Brunswick or work for reform from within.

The SANB (still a cultural association at the core) risked having its funding from the Government of Canada cut off before it explained that the convention produced no consensus and was not binding.

As a result, it lost funding from both the federal and provincial governments, who feared that radicals had taken over the group (and by extension, the Parti Acadien).