PQ Leader Pauline Marois scrums outside Quebec's National Assembly in this June 7, 2011, file photo.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press
Pauline Marois emerged from a gardening retreat Wednesday to try to bury a growing leadership crisis in the Parti Québécois.
But the PQ leader's critics continued to sprout like weeds as she tried to move forward by presenting the party program adopted at a convention nearly two months ago.
The unusual step of releasing the program as if it were new, and on the eve of summer, was the latest attempt by the Parti Québécois leader to move on from one of the most difficult springs any PQ leader has faced.
In the past two days alone, former leaders Jacques Parizeau and Bernard Landry have called on Ms. Marois to reflect on her tactics and leadership style.
Mr. Parizeau's grandson, Hadrien Parizeau, called for her resignation outright. The younger Parizeau is the president of the Crémazie riding represented by Mr. Parizeau's wife, Lisette Lapointe, who resigned from the PQ caucus to sit as an Independent.
Ms. Marois asked party members and her critics to take a step back.
"Let's calm down. Let's breathe," Ms. Marois said. "I've had a chance to reflect for four years now. … I have the support of the members of the party, I have the support of the caucus, I think now we have to work on realizing this program."
The spring has been a season of upheaval for Ms. Marois. In the space of six weeks, the PQ Leader saw the Bloc Québécois decimated in May's federal election; she had four members of her caucus quit the party over her leadership and strategy; and old lions from the party have been sniping from the sidelines and engaging in pointed debate with the greener caucus members who were paramount among the dozen who surrounded her at Wednesday's news conference.
"I spent (Tuesday) in my garden, it did me enormous good. I spent two weeks at the front without a break, so I put my hands in the earth. It's extraordinary for rediscovering serenity," Ms. Marois said.
Serenity will be hard to come by. Earlier this week, Mr. Parizeau wrote a letter criticizing the PQ's "diluted" sovereignty objective and "uncertain" approach to achieving it. He also criticized Ms. Marois for imposing the party line on a PQ private-member's bill that inhibits a citizen's right to legally challenge a management deal for a proposed arena project.
Former PQ leader Bernard Landry told Montreal's La Presse that he's "never seen such a crisis" in the PQ. He urged Ms. Marois to reflect on her leadership style and to ditch the go-slow approach to sovereignty.
Many pro-independence activists are upset Ms. Marois has not committed to holding a referendum if she is elected premier.
Les Perreaux