PQ united, ready for election: Leader

MONTREAL After meeting the demands of her caucus dissidents for more democratic reforms, including the possibility of citizen-initiated referendums, Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois pronounced her party united Sunday and said she was ready to fight a Quebec election.

“I call on you to set in motion election preparations starting now,” Marois told about 500 delegates and observers attending a three-day meeting in Montreal to debate policy options.

Marois told her party members to get ready now for an election. She said it would be about removing the “bad” Jean Charest government, increasing revenues on natural resources extracted in Quebec, a new Bill 101 to preserve the French language, setting limits on reasonable accommodation of religious differences and protecting workers.