STE-CATHERINE-DE-LA-JACQUES-CARTIER, Que. - Parti Quebecois members were asked to swear allegiance to Leader Pauline Marois on Wednesday in an illustration of how swiftly and severely the party has been gripped by internal strife.
Marois quizzed her caucus members at an emergency retreat Wednesday.
"I asked them whether they agreed with the (party) program, whether they would stay with the Parti Quebecois, and whether they would continue to support me -- by my side," Marois told reporters.
"They answered yes to that."
With that, Marois declared her party united.
The fact that she felt the need to seek such assurances, however, speaks to how quickly the party's woes have snowballed.
Just a few weeks ago, she received a score of 93 per cent in a leadership-review vote and her party was sitting comfortably atop the polls. It has since seen its popularity level off, and six members have quit.
Those departures have also provoked a deeper, more existential malaise within the party.
The PQ has suddenly found itself tugged in two directions -- pulled one way by hardcore sovereigntists who recently quit, and in the opposite direction by the latest defector who urged the party to shelve its independence plans.
Fears that the party could bleed support -- and members -- from both ends helped create an unspoken theme at Wednesday's meeting: long-term survival.
Bernard Drainville, a prominent PQ member of the legislature, says he was aghast to see a former ally who recently defected now talking about possibly supporting some broader alliance of sovereigntists.
"We need unity in the sovereignty movement now," Drainville said on his way into the meeting.
"I watched Pierre (Curzi) yesterday and I asked myself whether he's now dividing us. I am asking my friend, Pierre, to reflect on the harm he could cause us.
"What he did yesterday doesn't help us. It divides us even more -- and we need unity right now."
The party's longest-serving member, Francois Gendron, entered Wednesday's meeting ridiculing the defectors, whom he deemed "navel-gazers." Gendron reminded reporters of the PQ's accomplishments over its four-decade history.
One member, however, offered a cryptic hint of ongoing turmoil. Claude Cousineau said he will stay with the party -- at least for now -- but will spend the summer doing some thinking.
"For the moment, I'm here," Cousineau said.
"As for the summer that's coming, it will be a summer of reflection for many people. Because summer is very interesting; you can play golf, go fishing. You can reflect."
Throughout its history the PQ has withstood tension between its hardline and more moderate factions, but this threat is especially acute.
With momentum apparently stalled toward another independence referendum, some of the party's elected members have been splintering off in various directions.
Some of the more hardcore, or older, members are losing patience with the go-slow approach to achieving independence. These include former premiers Jacques Parizeau and Bernard Landry, as well as some of the party's recent defectors.
However, the PQ faces new threats on its opposite flank.
Polls have suggested a yet-to-be created party -- led by former PQ minister Francois Legault -- might steal some of the PQ's support by promising a moratorium on independence referendums.
There is also speculation that some elected Pequistes might be preparing to jump ship to that new party.
Some of the recent defectors have criticized Marois over her leadership style, with allegations she was too quick to stifle dissenting opinion. At least one departing MNA bluntly declared that Marois would not be the person to lead Quebec to independence.
And, on Wednesday, Drainville said it might be a good idea for the PQ to start highlighting the rest of the team more.
"I'm not saying Madame Marois should take up less space," Drainville said. "I'm saying the team should take up more space."
Marois announced Wednesday that she had agreed to make some staffing changes in her office and that she would also reshuffle critics' portfolios.
She also promised to consult closely with her MNAs.
Marois revealed that she had invited her members to write down their ideas about how they might want to do politics differently, and bring them in for discussion at the end of the summer.
Meanwhile, a man always seen as a potential successor to Marois -- ex-Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe -- made a rare public appearance Wednesday.
Duceppe has not spoken much to reporters since suffering a stinging setback in the May 2 federal election.
In an interview with Radio-Canada, he issued a call for the PQ to remain united.
There is already another left-wing sovereigntist party, Quebec solidaire, which has an elected member. The latest defections from the PQ have fuelled talk of a deeper realignment.
Duceppe expressed support for Marois, while urging disgruntled Pequistes to be careful.
"We're in a period of insecurity ... but we have to be responsible," Duceppe said. "When the election comes, we cannot have sovereigntists spread out into five or six different parties or we will ensure defeat."
He also warned that if Quebec francophones do not achieve independence within the next 15 years, they will find themselves on the road to cultural extinction.
He used, as one example, the fact that voters in one Quebec riding elected an NDP candidate, Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who struggles to communicate in French.
Duceppe said such a thing would be unthinkable in independent countries like Germany, Italy or the United States, where voters would not imagine electing someone who struggled to get by in the common language.
He said independence is the only remedy -- and he warned of dire consequences if it doesn't happen soon.
"We'll be on the same slippery slope as French-Canadians and Acadians," he told Radio-Canada, referring to places where the francophone population has declined.
"I admire these people. I worked with them. But there's a drastic assimilation -- even in Acadia it's nine per cent per generation."
