PQ leadership hopeful proposes sovereignty petition
LOOKING FOR A MILLION SIGNATURES Cloutier believes he can kick-start moribund referendum movement
QUEBEC — Amassing a million signatures in favour of a referendum might seem like a daunting challenge but it’s a good motivator, a potential Parti Québécois leadership candidate says.
In the latest twist in the race to succeed Pauline Marois, Lac St-Jean MNA Alexandre Cloutier Wednesday offered his own formula for jump-starting the movement.
He said a PQ government would hold a sovereignty referendum within a first mandate in government, but only if a million Quebecers sign a petition demanding one.
“The beauty of what I am proposing is that it’s the population which decides,” Cloutier told reporters arriving for a meeting of the PQ caucus.
“It’s difficult for sure. We are putting the bar high and we’re doing it on purpose because the goal is to win and succeed.”
Cloutier, who has not made his candidacy formal, but is expected to run, becomes the latest MNA to advance a formula to crank up the moribund movement.
“Each citizen who signs the petition will have the coming months to rally their fellow citizens on the advantage of independence,” Cloutier writes on a blog. “We would, in the end, have more than a million sovereignty spokespeople to spread the word to the four corners of Quebec.”
He adds his plan would be more popular with ordinary PQ members than some others.
Potential candidate Bernard Drainville’s plan is for the PQ to exclude any referendum until 2023, while Jean-François Lisée’s proposes the PQ decide what it’s referendum intentions are a year before an election.
Cloutier actually takes a harder line toward sovereignty, saying a PQ government should spend the first year in office drafting a new constitution and launching studies on the viability of the country.
He also says the PQ should devote half of the funds it raises as a party to promoting sovereignty.
But his plan drew only meek interest from his potential rivals.
“I think there are good ideas in there and we have to take the time to reflect on this,” Drainville said.
Lisée said the plan seems interesting but his position on one year before has not changed because it’s impossible to predict the mood of Quebecers in the future.
He quoted former PQ leader Jacques Parizeau who said on the weekend referendums should be held when “we are ready and the circumstances are right.”
The field for the race is also shaping up with news two MNAs, Sylvain Gaudreault and Véronique Hivon, on the list of possibles, had decided to not run.
Drainville, Lisée and Cloutier are expected to quickly announce they are running in the days following an Oct. 4 meeting of the party where the rules of the race will be set.