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In a thinly veiled attack on current PQ Leader Bernard Landry, whose leadership is under question by many hard-line sovereignists, Parizeau said it's time for the party to review its "step-by-step" approach to separation. He criticized the old-guard's 30-year fixation on a referendum as the only road to forming a new country.
Proposing a radical switch in strategy, Parizeau, 74, says if the PQ runs on a clear mandate to separate and wins a majority, even without 50 per cent of the vote, it would have the same legal and moral force as a referendum.
"In short, the Parti Québécois would run in the next election and ask for the mandate to realize sovereignty," Parizeau said.
"If (the PQ) wins, it will begin to prepare for (independence) by proclaiming a provisional constitution in accordance with which, among other measures, a Quebec citizenship would be instituted and a constitutional court would be created."
Parizeau, who was PQ premier during the 1995 referendum, believes this approach gets around the federal government's Clarity Act, which would subject a future referendum to Supreme Court of Canada oversight.
This may provide the New Democrats with the opportunity they have been looking for in Quebec.

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