Pauline Marois stressed the Parti Québécois's commitment to sovereignty and at the same time put another referendum on hold during her first speech as leader of the separatist party.

Hundreds of PQ supporters gathered in Quebec City on Wednesday night to welcome Marois as the party's new leader.

She was acclaimed as PQ leader on Tuesday after no one chose to run against her. 

"We'll take the time we need to advance this idea of a country," she told the crowd.

"We won't talk any more about the date or the time [of another referendum]."

Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe, who briefly entered the PQ leadership race, and former premier Jacques Parizeau were among those showing their support.

Marois replaces François Gendron, who has filled in on an interim basis since André Boisclair resigned this spring following the PQ's third-place finish in the Quebec election.

She is the party's third leader in the past five years, and Gendron made a reference in his speech to the PQ's notoriously fickle membership.

"I don't want any more leaders," Gendron joked, before adding that the party is facing serious challenges following the spring election.

"We have to reconnect with the population," he said.

Marois, who was unsuccessful in previous leadership bids in 1985 and 2005, echoed his call for party renewal.

"It's true that Quebec has changed in the last 40 years, and if Quebec and Quebecers have changed, then the Parti Québécois has to change as well," she said.

Her first address as PQ leader was otherwise light on policy matters, though she did call for wealth creation to fight poverty.

Record blasted

The 58-year-old was first elected to the legislature in 1981 and over the years held several major portfolios, including health, education and finance.

Marois's coronation comes as a recent poll taken for Montreal La Presse suggested she was neck-and-neck with Action Démocratique du Québec Leader Mario Dumont as the most popular party leader in the province.

But that didn't seem to faze Dumont, who blasted Marois's record in government.

"The problems we have in the health system today — staff shortages — it's Pauline Marois who oversaw forced retirements and who limited enrolments in nursing and medical programs," he said earlier on Wednesday.

"She is a person, in my opinion, who through her bureaucratic vision left a damaging trail."

Senior Liberals also took the opportunity to downplay what one called "the Pauline Marois effect."

Whip Norman MacMillan slammed Marois's stance on referendum timing as "hypocrisy," while deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau said "the PQ is what it always was" despite the new leader.