(Sherbrooke) Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon won 98.5% of support during the vote of confidence he was to face at the party convention in Sherbrooke on Saturday.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon made his entrance under a familiar tune performed by Gerry Boulet. “As the song says, we’re not only still alive, but we’re stronger and more motivated than ever. I feel your energy and I am honored by it, ”he launched the PQ leader on Saturday in front of a room full of activists.
The PQ obtained the worst result in its history and only elected three deputies last October, but the rise in the polls of the political formation nourishes the hope of the PQ. He promises constancy, perseverance and coherence, which “define” his political action. With this vote, he obtains a higher result than those of former chefs Jean-François Lisée (2017 -92.8%), Pauline Marois (2011 -93%), as well as Bernard Landry, Lucien Bouchard and Jacques Parizeau, noted his fellow deputy Pascal Bérubé.
The PQ took advantage of this convention to announce that it will present its “year 1 budget” for an independent Quebec a year late. A first version was to be unveiled in June 2022, then during the election campaign, but it was sent for recycling due to the inflation crisis, he explained earlier in the day.
Version 2.0 of this document, which uses the methodology used by Prime Minister François Legault when he conducted this exercise in 2004 when he was still a separatist, will also present a second scenario based on the different choices that the Parti Québécois if it were in power. The PQ is also launching three other “projects” on independence, citizenship and immigration, which will bear fruit by 2026 to prepare the party for the next electoral battle.
Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon’s strategy: reinforce the PQ’s independence argument while the Coalition avenir Québec continues to fail in its negotiations with Ottawa.
Chess weight
“We’re going to let the toll get heavier and time do its work. The weight of failures that accumulate and have a direct impact. The health network, if it misses 5 billion per year, it makes a huge difference. The weight of these failures weighs heavier and heavier,” he explained. This position “is more and more indefensible” for François Legault, added Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
After the budget of year 1, Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon must publish in 2024 a “response” to the Initiative of the Century, “the objective of the Canadian government to have 100 million Canadians in 2100, a project strongly ideology created with the McKinsey firm and which has an irreversible impact on the political weight of Quebec and on the future of French,” he lamented.
Then, at the beginning of 2025, it will broadcast a “question-and-answer exercise on what is fundamental and essential about the legitimate questions of the population regarding our project”. This approach is modeled on that of Scotland, which produced “books accessible to the population which respond in simple terms to the interest of the independence project”.
And finally, in 2026, an election year, the PQ wants to present its own definition of citizenship for an independent Quebec.