QUEBEC CITY -- This is the start of a "new cycle" leading to the independence of Quebec.
It is the conclusion of new PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who presented a new "national project" on Saturday to Parti Quebecois (PQ) members gathered in a virtual council meeting.
Members will debate the document in the coming months to be adopted by the congress in the fall of 2021.
If it forms the next government in 2022, the PQ would propose a referendum on Quebec independence.
After having postponed the idea of holding a referendum under their former leader Jean-Francois Lisee, the PQ now proposes holding a referendum immediately.
A possible PQ government led by Paul St-Pierre Plamondon would spend public funds to promote this option and would therefore hold consultations on Quebec becoming a country.
Plamondon would also commit to "de-globalizing" Quebec, where it would increase local industrial production to become less dependent on goods imported from elsewhere.
Also, the PQ government would fight tax havens: it would stop doing business with companies that resort to this tax avoidance scheme.
In addition, the PQ not only wants to get Quebec out of Canada, but also to "deCanadianize" it, or get Canada out of Quebec.
Thus, a PQ government would legislate in Ottawa's areas of jurisdiction when it deemed that the federal government's inaction would harm Quebec's interests.
Plamondon also denounced the use of Quebec tax dollars to subsidize the Alberta oil industry.
-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2020.
