Quebec Votes

PQ Leader: Pauline Marois

Last Updated: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 | 9:38 AM ET

CBC News

Pauline Marois, the doyenne of Quebec's sovereigntist movement, accepted the leadership of the Parti Québécois in 2007 on one condition: that the party support her firm resolve to move away from talk of a sovereignty referendum and focus on rekindling its social democratic roots.

The PQ desperately needed to renew itself after disastrous results in the 2007 provincial election, when it sunk to third place under former leader André Boisclair, bleeding support and seats to the right-wing Action Démocratique du Québec (ADQ).

Boisclair resigned shortly after the election, and Marois, 59, was wooed out of retirement to replace the man who less than a year before soundly beat her in the PQ leadership race.

When she agreed to rally the fractured PQ, Marois told party supporters that locking into a referendum deadline would marginalize the party instead of moving it toward its lofty goal of sovereignty.

"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," Marois said at the time.

The PQ had to confront its greatest challenge, she said: once again convincing Quebecers why sovereignty and independence from the Canadian federation would improve their lives.

"We have to listen to the population, and when we do that, it is possible to discuss how they see sovereignty, what they want for their country," Marois declared.

Her insight was lauded by party insiders as sensible and sound and was eventually endorsed in the PQ's 2008 platform, crafted after months of spirited debate over the "r" word.

This fall, Marois launched a two-page "sovereignty manifesto," spelling out the party's long-standing commitment to and justification for Quebec's independence, as a launching point for new debate on independence.

But whether the party has regained any real ground under its renewed sovereignty mandate will be tested in the next provincial election.

Polls following PQ fortunes under Marois reflect a gentle upswing in the party's support at the expense of the inexperienced ADQ opposition.

Marois will try to rally support within sovereignty camps that closed in around Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe in the federal election despite pundits predicting the demise of Quebec’s independence movement.

But Marois’ proposals as leader – including a contentious "Identity Act" – have been received with mixed reviews.

A question of identity

Marois rallied the PQ around its perennial hobby horse – the preservation and viability of the French language – when she proposed an "Identity Act" (Bill 195) in November 2007. The legislation would create a type of Quebec citizenship that would require immigrants to prove "appropriate" working knowledge of French.

The move was a response to a polarizing debate in Quebec over identity and ethnic minorities. The issue was first ignited by a code of conduct for immigrants adopted in the town of Hérouxville and elaborated on during public hearings (the Bouchard-Taylor Commission) held throughout the province on so-called reasonable accommodation of religious and cultural beliefs and practices.

The PQ's Identity Act would prevent immigrants who fail to develop their French-language skills from running for public office, raising funds for a political party or petitioning the National Assembly with a grievance.

Quebec's francophone majority must stop feeling afraid of appearing intolerant, Marois said. Creating Quebec citizenship would send a strong message to immigrants, especially those who choose English over French when they settle in the province, she said.

The draft legislation stirred up a storm at Quebec's national assembly, where the ruling Liberals accused the PQ of wanting to create two classes of Quebecers.

It was also heavily criticized by academics, civil liberties advocates, minority groups and some sovereigntists, who said PQ co-founder René Lévesque never believed Quebecois identity could be affirmed by excluding certain citizens.

Even Quebec's largest labour groups, traditionally staunch PQ supporters, took issue with the proposal and demanded some amendments.

Attacked from within

Marois's harshest critics have been fellow sovereigntists who jumped on her declarations about bilingualism and education.

When she suggested in early 2008 that children in French-language elementary schools be taught some courses — such as geography — in English starting in Grade 5 to encourage bilingualism, prominent hardline sovereigntists attacked her publicly, calling the idea an "act of treachery" and accusing her of promoting Trudeau-style bilingualism.

Marois was forced to retract her suggestion in an open letter publicized in the media, in which she explicitly said "no to bilingualism in Quebec" but added that there is no harm in promoting more English instruction.

The firing squad returned shortly after, when in February 2008 Marois declared her continued support for education reform in Quebec, a project she spearheaded when she served as education minister.

PQ's éminences grises, including Bernard Landry, former cabinet minister Joseph Facal and party advisor Jean-François Lisée, berated her position publicly and called for a moratorium on the reform, which emphasizes student competencies over measurable skills acquisition, group work over individual work and discourages the repeating of grades.

Marois lashed back, berating her outspoken sovereigntist peers for airing the PQ's dirty laundry in public, saying she was "fed up" with public spats that left people with "a poor and false image of our party."

She was redeemed in March 2008 when she corralled the PQ's left- and right-wing factions into adopting a milder sovereignty platform, which stresses a policy of "national governance," including steps to claim additional powers for Quebec such as its own constitution and citizenship.

It also promotes fostering a "national conversation" about the merits of independence, without the obligation of holding an immediate referendum if the PQ forms a government.

The platform also stresses financial support for immigrants, an increase in the minimum wage and negotiations on tuition rates, reflecting Marois's desire to return the PQ to its left-leaning roots.

She has also called for stronger French-language laws to force small businesses to operate in French.

Under her leadership, the PQ didn't back the Liberals' 2007 or 2008 budgets, abstaining from the vote altogether on the former. Both budgets passed with ADQ support.

In the next provincial election, Marois will be pressed to prove that sovereignty still matters to Quebecers and that the PQ can better govern Quebec than Jean Charest's Liberals, who have solidified support for their minority government.

English skills, mansion questioned

Anglophone and francophone media outlets have criticized Marois's weak English, a limitation she has acknowledged several times during her leadership. She is taking English lessons with a tutor but has refused on more than one occasion to answer questions in the language.

Marois's personal wealth has also been subject to heavy media scrutiny, sparked by an investigation in the Montreal Gazette that raised questions about the sprawling multimillion-dollar home on Île Bizard she and partner Claude Blanchet own.

The paper alleged the Montreal-area mansion was built in the 1990s on public land expropriated in 1978 by the Parti Québécois government to extend a highway and questionably dezoned, insinuating Marois's political connections helped the process.

The PQ leader denied any wrongdoing, saying she had obtained a legitimate right of way on the land.

She accused the Gazette of smear tactics as she was campaigning in a byelection to regain a national assembly seat at the time (she eventually won the riding of Charlevoix).

Marois and Blanchet later sued the Gazette and reporter William Marsden for $2 million, alleging defamation.

None of the pending lawsuit's allegations have been proven in court.

First female PQ leader boasts unequalled experience

Marois is one of the most tenacious and successful Quebec politicians in recent history and a veritable trailblazer for women in public office and in the sovereignty movement.

She is the first female leader of any political party in Quebec and brought decades of cabinet and legislature experience to the job. Marois's political history is intimately linked with the Parti Québécois.

A party member for more than three decades, Marois first worked as a press attaché for Jacques Parizeau when he was provincial finance minister in the 1970s.

She was elected to the national assembly in 1981 in the riding of La Peltrie and appointed minister for the status of women by then premier René Lévesque.

Marois ran to replace Lévesque when he resigned as the party's leader in 1985 but lost to Pierre-Marc Johnson.

She was elected in the Taillon riding in 1989 and eventually named to cabinet by Parizeau in 1994.

Marois helped draft Quebec's youth protection legislation, seen as the most progressive law of its kind in North America at the time.

She also engineered Quebec's envied low-cost daycare system, for which the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care granted her a Champion for Child Care Award this fall.

Marois has held the education, health and finance portfolios under former premiers Lucien Bouchard, Parizeau and Bernard Landry.

Her second bid for leadership, in 2005, pitted her against André Boisclair, a young, upstart former cabinet minister. She resigned from the national assembly in 2006 after losing to Boisclair, saying her heart wasn't in politics anymore.

She returned to the spotlight with what she described as an attitude of "serenity" when the PQ asked her to run for leader. Marois was acclaimed after Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe bowed out of the race just 24 hours after declaring his candidacy.

In September 2008, she underwent emergency surgery for appendicitis.

Marois and Blanchet have four children.