ST-HYACINTHE, Que. - The Parti Quebecois has closed ranks behind their leader's plan to resurrect the party's election hopes by dropping talk of a referendum.
PQ Leader Pauline Marois overcame stubborn opposition from a small group of hardliners over the weekend to convince members to drop the party's vow to hold a referendum as soon as possible following an election win.
"Can I tell you how proud I am of my party?'' she said in a speech on Sunday to party faithful gathered in St-Hyacinthe, Que., south of Montreal. "I am proud of your audacity.''
It was an audacious move for Marois, too. The PQ has a long history of forcing out leaders who show the slightest hesitancy on the push for sovereignty.
But opposition faded on the weekend as Marois and her supporters pushed through a series of platform changes aimed at shedding policies that led to their third-place finish in last year's election.
Marois's attempt at a voter-friendly makeover includes a return to the party's left-wing roots and its perennial hobby-horse, defending the French language.
"Today the Parti Quebecois took the path toward being a modern social-democratic government,'' she told party members. "A state that takes care of people without being wall-to-wall.''
With a number of small left-wing parties in Quebec eating into PQ support, members passed proposals calling for financial support for immigrants, an increase to minimum wage and a debate over tuition rates.
Along with a streamlined PQ, Premier Jean Charest's minority government will have to contend with an Action democratique du Quebec freshly united behind its leader.
At the ADQ's convention on the weekend, Mario Dumont shrugged off grumblings over trouble in the polls and revelations of a secret $50,000 stipend from his party's coffers to earn a 95 per cent confidence vote from party members.
"People can agree or not agree (with the stipend) but it was done in all transparency and the members have said what they think about it with this vote of confidence,'' Dumont told reporters after the convention in Laval, just north of Montreal.
As for the Parti Quebecois and its raison d'etre, Quebec sovereignty, Marois stressed that giving up talk of a referendum didn't mean the end of discussion on independence.
PQ activists pledged to rally separatist groups in the province to stir up support for the cause should it win the next election.
They also plan to draft a Quebec constitution and create a Quebec citizenship.
Recent polls put the PQ a close second behind the Liberals, ahead of the Opposition ADQ.
Marois attributed the opposition she faced over dropping the referendum commitment to the "enthusiasm'' of certain members. But she became emotional later as she evoked the party's fractious debates.
"I proved (this weekend) that I love my party,'' she said, welling up with tears. "I've been a member for thirty years. I love these people. I love them for their convictions.''
The new platform will get its first test when Charest calls byelections in ridings recently left vacant by two PQ members.
