About 125 Parti Quebecois riding presidents, as well as outgoing leader Pauline Marois met Saturday at a closed-door sessoin in Laval to assess their party's crushing electoral defeat of April 7. The proceedings were guided by party president Raymond Archambault following the Friday resignation of party director general Sylvain Tanguay. Some have speculated that other resignations could be imminent when details emerge in the autopsy of the party’s failure to win more than 30 seats. "The problem isn't sovereignty, it's us," PQ riding association president Marc Laviolette told CTV Montreal. Published reports have suggested that the PQ had been oblivious to their impending electoral failure, as they had been relying on internal polls that proved overly optimistic. Reports also suggested that the PQ overestimated the positive impact of media mogul Pierre Karl Peladeau as party candidate. More changes could take place at a larger party conference in June. Meanwhile former PQ premier Jacques Parizeau commented in a published article Saturday that the party must stop being so reluctant to discuss sovereignty. He said that the PQ made the mistake of using sovereignty as a, “kind of flag that’s shaken from time to time to keep the militants in the ranks.” He noted that a survey taken prior to the last election gave 41 percent support to sovereignty. A new leader is not expected to be chosen until about one year from now.
