Early Life and Career
Facal was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, and moved with his family to Sherbrooke, Quebec, in 1970. His father, a surgeon with leftist political views, moved to Canada to escape Uruguay's political turmoil. Facal attended a bilingual French/Spanish school in Uruguay and was fluent in both languages before arriving in Quebec; he later became fluent in English. His sister, Carole Facal, is a noted singer-songwriter in Quebec.
Facal has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Université du Québec à Montréal (1983), a Masters of Arts degree in Political Science from the Université de Montréal (1986), and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Sorbonne (1993). He lectured a the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montréal and Concordia University before starting his career as an elected official. He joined the Parti Québécois in 1980 and was the party's youth leader in 1990–91.
Shortly before his first election victory in 1994, Facal said that his support for Quebec sovereignty was based on economic issues. "Older sovereignists tend to be driven more by the linguistic and cultural aspects of the debate," he said. " are more driven by economic arguments, perhaps because nationalists of my generation have seen the slow and steady rise of French and feel less insecure. The language issue is really not what moves me."
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