When Créditistes were wiped off the electoral map in 1980 federal election, the political situation seemed favourable for the growth of the Parti nationaliste.
In the aftermath of the 1982 Patriation of the Constitution by the federal government, PQ leader René Lévesque adopted the beau risque strategy and refused to give his blessing to Léger's efforts to establish the Parti nationaliste.
Most PQ supporters voted for the Progressive Conservative Party which won 58 out of Quebec's 75 districts and Mulroney became Prime Minister.
The Parti nationaliste may have provided the groundwork for the subsequent success of the sovereigntist Bloc Québécois (BQ) in federal politics.
Three of them, Antoine Dubé, Réal Ménard and Yves Rocheleau, had run under the Parti nationaliste label nine years earlier.