We characterize the performance of the Québec economy over the last quarter century: 1981-2006. Many indicators are presented: GDP, GDP per capita, population, job creation, employment rates, average weekly earnings, private investments, exports, debt, R&D. In spite of some strong sectors, the global economic performance of Québec has been significantly lower than that of the rest of Canada and the United States. Many challenges are confronting us. We are in a certain sense condemned to be more efficient and more innovative than our main competitors and partners in order to reverse the current trend towards marginality. A new quiet revolution is necessary; it must reaffirm the social democratic goals and principles that have become synonymous with modern Québec but proceed with a radically different set of ways, means and policies, that is, implement a competitive social democracy.