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Parti Quebecois MNA Veronique Hivon is pictured in the legislature in Quebec City on March 9, 2016.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press

The race to succeed Pierre Karl Peladeau as leader of the Parti Quebecois has its first entrant.

Former cabinet minister Veronique Hivon announced this afternoon she wants the sovereigntist party's top job.

Hivon, 46, is probably best-known for tabling Quebec's dying-in-dignity legislation a few years ago when the PQ was in power.

She has represented the riding of Joliette in the legislature since 2008.

Peladeau surprised the Canadian political world last Monday when he announced he was resigning to spend more time with his young children.

Other ex-cabinet ministers Martine Ouellet and Alexandre Cloutier are also expected to enter the race, which is scheduled to culminate with the leader being chosen between mid-September and mid-October.

Sylvain Gaudreault, a member of the legislature, is leading the party on an interim basis.

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