New sovereigntist party taking shape in Quebec

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Quebec's fertile political ground may be about to sprout yet another party, one that threatens to further fracture the independence movement and the ailing Parti Québécois.

Three of the four former PQ members of the provincial legislature who bolted from the party in the spring have signed up to attend Sunday's founding assembly of a new hard-line sovereignty movement.

The movement published a manifesto by 77 sovereigntists on Tuesday declaring the PQ worn out and confused under the leadership of Pauline Marois. Ms. Marois fired back, saying the new movement is showing nothing but disdain for committed sovereigntists and PQ members.

Quebec has spawned many such upstarts in the past 50 years. What's unusual this time is four sitting independents are openly shopping for a new home after rejecting the PQ and the go-slow approach to independence of Ms. Marois.

If the former PQ heavyweights support a new party, they would create a fifth credible alternative in the crowded ranks opposing the ruling Liberals. Four of the opposition movements profess varying degrees of support for Quebec independence.

One former péquiste independent, Lisette Lapointe, has expressed support for the new movement founded under the name Le Nouveau Mouvement pour le Québec.

"The movement has triggered a groundswell, the likes of which we have not seen in a long time," said Ms. Lapointe, the wife of former PQ premier Jacques Parizeau. "People are not satisfied with the status quo, where political parties tell them how things will go."

Two other ex-péquiste independents, Pierre Curzi and Jean-Martin Aussant, have only promised to attend the meeting. Louise Beaudoin has said she will keep her distance for now.

"There's a recognition that none of the current options offer an alternative to sovereigntists," said Jocelyn Desjardins, an environmentalist and former journalist who is organizing Sunday's meeting.

Upheaval in the Quebec sovereignty movement began with the spring federal election and the surprise annihilation of the Bloc Québécois. Mr. Desjardins joked the Bloc's defeat might lead to "85 new political parties being formed. But at least politics have been reactivated in Quebec."

Already the right-wing Action démocratique du Québec and the left-wing Québec Solidaire hold seats. Former PQ cabinet minister François Legault is on the brink of starting a right-leaning party, which he says supports independence but would not push for it for at least 10 years.

The developments have Quebec Liberals revelling at divisions among their opposition. Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier quipped to an assembly of young Liberals that the separatist pursuit of division was achieving new heights.

Liberal Premier Jean Charest, long one of Canada's canniest political operators, acknowledged the PQ's implosion came as a shock to him. "I'm like everyone else, nobody saw what was coming in the PQ," Mr. Charest said Sunday after a Liberal youth meeting in Sherbrooke, Que.

Ms. Marois, whose leadership came under attack soon after she won a confidence vote from PQ members last April with 94 per cent, dismissed the emergence of a new movement as "one among many others."

"I'm not minimizing it. First, let's see what it looks like," she said.

Mr. Desjardins denied his movement could split pro-independence ranks further. He pointed out only 17 per cent of respondents supported the PQ in a recent poll, far behind Mr. Legault's fledgling movement. The level of support is also less than half of those voters who support sovereignty.

"The damage of vote splitting has already been done. Honestly, in all the history of the PQ, it's been quite a long since the party was at 17 per cent," said Mr. Desjardins, who was once an activist in Ms. Lapointe's riding.

Several pieces have to fall in place before Quebec would see six competitive parties contest the next election, which must be held by December, 2013. The new sovereigntist movement might never get off the ground, especially if Ms. Marois eventually succumbs to pressure and quits.

Mr. Legault's movement could also end up merging with the ADQ. Mr. Charest was happy to point out the ideological hurdles such a union would pose. For one thing, Mr. Legault has endorsed the public system of medicare while the ADQ wants a much greater role for the private sector.

"I doubt it will go very far for a very simple reason. The ADQ would have to renounce everything they've believed since their foundation," Mr. Charest said. "It's irreconcilable, impossible."

With a report from The Canadian Press