MONTREAL - Pauline Marois has been given the support of 93.1 per cent of Parti Quebecois members in a confidence vote on her leadership.
The resounding backing at a PQ policy convention in Montreal today surpasses the 80 per cent Marois said she was hoping to get.
Marois has avoided the kind of disappointing result that prompted Bernard Landry to step down as PQ leader in 2005 when he got just 76.2 per cent support.
She will now be able to concentrate on hammering away at the governing Liberals who were last elected in December 2008.
Premier Jean Charest, whose party has a slight majority in the national assembly, can wait until December 2013 before calling the next provincewide vote.
Marois talks sovereignty
Earlier Saturday, PQ members endorsed Marois's strategy of not getting boxed into any specific timetable for holding a sovereignty referendum.
The issue was high on the agenda, however.
"Sovereignty is the only possible destiny for Quebec," PQ leader Pauline Marois told her delegates Friday evening.
Marois galvanized her troops with a speech heavily focused on the Parti Quebecois raison d'être, Quebec independence.
During her speech, Marois referred on at least three occasions in the party's founder, Rene Levesque, describing him as the leader who had led the way and that the PQ must now complete the work.
Marois, who faces a confidence vote from the PQ this weekend, told PQ delegates she is person to transform the sovereignist dream into reality.
Some 1,700 delegates from across Quebec voted to support or challenge Marois's leadership.
Delegates discuss PQ issues
Party members are also discussing issues including Quebec's language law and colleges.
Delegates passed a resolution on Saturday that would make French the mandatory language of instruction for some junior college students.
They also approved a plan for a PQ government to study and publish reports on the impact of sovereignty, as was done in advance of the 1995 referendum.
