What could the Parti Qubcois look like after Friday's vote?
Leading candidates for leadership differ on key issues
Members of the PartiQubcoiswill begin voting today for a new leader.
By Friday, when the electronic ballots of rank-and-filemembers have all been counted,we will know who will replace Pierre KarlPladeau as head of the party.
In the last few weeks, the leadership race has morphed from a boring, ho-hum campaign to what some say has turned intothe most hostile race in PQhistory.
Part of that is due to the stakes.
The party is at a crossroads, receiving its worst electoral result since 1973 in the last election.
However, it is also because the three leading candidates have pitched vastly different positions on sovereignty and identityissues thatcard-carrying PQ members hold near and dear to their hearts.
Here's a look at what a PartiQubcoisled by each of the three front-runners could look like after Friday.
Alexandre Cloutier
Alexandre Cloutier started out in front and has spent the past month fending off Jean-Franois Lise and Martine Ouellet.
His rivals have both increased their polling numbers by attacking the MNA for Lac-Saint-Jean, calling him the "establishment" candidateand taking him to task on the issues of sovereignty and identity.
If elected leader, Cloutier says he willimmediately appoint a task force made up of an expert, an MNA and a party member to consult Quebecers oneight fundamental themes. That teamwould report back to him in a year.
Then, after consulting with the party membership and six months before the fall 2018 electionCloutier would announce his referendum plans.
Opponent Martine Ouellet has accused Cloutier of asking party members for a "blank cheque."
When it comes to religious symbols, Cloutier'sposition softened between the last leadership race and this one, something whichLise used as ammunition to attack the perceived front-runner.
Cloutier says he would adopt the Bouchard-TaylorCommission'srecommendation that public servants in positions of authority, such as police officers and judges, be prohibited from wearing religious symbols.
Under his leadership, the PQ would oppose the Couillard government's religious neutrality bill, which would prohibit anyone whose face is covered from giving or receivingpublic services, such as obtaining a driver's licence.
Jean-Franois Lise
Jean-FranoisLise, theMNA for Rosemont in Montreal,has momentum heading into the vote.
Lise has successfully differentiated himself from bothCloutier and Ouellet on the issue of sovereignty. If he becomes leader, he says another referendum on independence will be off the table, for the time being.
He sees the PQ's main task as beatingthe Liberals in 2018. This could pose a problem for Premier Philippe Couillard in the shortterm, because Couillard'sstrongest argument against the PQ has been the threat of anotherreferendum.
If the PQ wins the next election under his leadership, Lise says he will focus on governing, with an eye to a referendum after winning a second election in 2022.
By adoptingthis strategy, Lise is counting onappealingto the greatest number ofparty members:both those who want a leader who will commit to a referendum timeline, even one with a far-off date, and those who want getting rid ofthe Liberals to be the PQ'spriority.
On the issue ofidentity, Lise says the PQ would support the Couillard government's religious neutrality bill, calling it a step in the right direction.
He supports prohibiting civil servants in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols and has mused about gradually extending that to daycare workers.
He's also said he would encourage all civil servants to refrain from wearing any religious symbols, without imposing any deadlines or sanctions if they failed to comply.
Martine Ouellet
Under the MNA for Vachon, independence would become the priority for the Parti Qubcois.
Martine Ouellet made this the single issue inher leadership campaign, and if she becomes leader and then premier, she says she would hold a referendum within her first mandate.
Throughout the campaign, she has criticized not only her opponents, but also her caucus, for putting talk of independence and a referendum on the backburner.
Ouellet has sat outthe vicious identity debate between Lise and Cloutier, at one point accusing her two opponents of leaving her out of the debate on purpose in order to make it a two-person race.
Her platform contends thata secular state is "vital," but she does not wade further into some of the hot-button topics, such as clothing and religious symbols. This makes it hard to say where she would take the party on that front.
A request by CBCfor more information on that front has gone unanswered.
PaulSt-PierrePlamondon
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is a longshot in the leadership race.
The 39-year-oldMontreal lawyer, educated at McGill and Oxford universities,is something of an outsider.
He'sbest known for his 2014 bookLes orphelins politiques, in which he made the case that young Quebecersdon't see their values articulated by any of the current political parties.
He has argued for the PQ to return to its social democratic roots.
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