Despite recent landslides, members of Parti Québécois say the party is alive and well.

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TROIS-RIVIÈRES – The Parti Québécois has started a weekend political convention that quotes the famous phrase of Mark Twain: that the rumors of his disappearance are greatly exaggerated.

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“It’s the energy convention,” party leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said when asked by a journalist if the PQ was at the end of the political line in Quebec.

“It is a convention of candidates and ideas that are real and I think it will reach a large part of the population.”

It is the first time that St-Pierre Plamondon has met in person with members of PQ. Elected in October 2020 as the successor to Jean-François Lisée, who lost in 2018, the pandemic prevented such meetings.

In addition to debating the policies they will present to the people in the 2022 elections, the party will look to one of its former leaders for inspiration. Pauline Marois will address the crowd by teleconference.

Its appearance coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Quebec public nursery system, in which it was instrumental in its creation.

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At the Liberal Party convention last weekend, the former leaders did not appear, not even their names were mentioned.

Like the liberals, the PQ is at a political crossroads. While they chose 10 MNAs in 2018, only seven remain. They form the third opposition party in the legislature, behind archrival Québec Solidaire.

At now recent Léger poll , the PQ and QS were judged by third place in voting intentions. Both have the support of 14 percent of Quebecers. Liberals rank second with 20 percent. The CAQ leads with a whopping 46 percent of the vote.

The convention’s theme is Changeons d’avenir, a game about the party wanting to break away from its 2018 electoral defeat, which was followed by months of grim speculation about its future and choice for independence.

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The weekend is being portrayed by party leaders as a relaunch. Later on Saturday, it will introduce a new logo and party slogan.

In fact, as the crowd prepared, the party’s chief executive, Jocelyn Caron, used a power point to poke fun at media headlines about the party’s demise.

He responded by saying that if the party is in such bad shape, why does it have the most members of the five represented in the legislature? The PQ says the last time it counted it had between 30,000 and 40,000 party members. A total of 450 PQ riding executives are attending the convention, in person and virtually.

“That’s not a death party,” Caron said. “A dying party has zero debt as revealed this week? Would a dying party recruit a candidate like Pierre Nantel in Marie-Victorin? As Mark Twain once said, the rumors of our death are greatly exaggerated. “

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“Until (independence) is done, we will be there. It’s not complicated. My friends, the electoral machine is starting up. You are the locomotive. Let’s get to work. “

In his press conference, St-Pierre Plamondon defended some of the issues that the party is selling, such as the writing of a Quebec national anthem or the creation of a Quebec army. He insisted that these are things that Quebecers care about.

“Quebec identity concerns the people and when we say that our Quebec identity is to unite all Quebecers around issues like culture, sports, a national anthem, a flag… yes, it connects with Quebecers.

“It is not the only issue. It does not prevent us from talking about our elders, our children, things like health. But I think we should not hesitate to say that we are all in the same boat, that we are all Quebecers.

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“When we look at an increasingly divided society, we are interested in talking about the identity of Quebec, which includes everyone and unites everyone.”

He insisted that the heart of the PQ’s vision is to stop “being caught up in a defensive posture that it faces in Canada.”

The PQ has already said that if elected in the 2022 general elections it will launch a referendum on independence within its first term. It will be a central theme of your electoral campaign.

On Saturday, delegates added a line to the plan saying that if elected, the PQ will explain what will happen “before, during and after” this referendum.

Delegates will also debate a youth motion that says, if elected, a PQ government will make education free for everyone from elementary to college level.

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St-Pierre Plamondon, however, indicated that he is not in favor of the idea.

“It’s hard for me to conceive that we can pay the college fees for a family that earns $ 500,000 a year,” he said, adding that it will make more sense to target the underprivileged.

The party will also discuss, like the other parties, the idea of ​​increasing greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

The PQ is the latest party to hold a policy event this fall. Québec solidarity, the Avenir Québec Coalition, the Québec Conservative Party and the Québec Liberal Party have held all these events.

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