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Parti Quebecois MNA Bernard Drainville appears ready to enter his party’s leadership race, left vacant since Pauline Marois quit the leadership after the April election.
Drainville, who entered politics in 2007 after a career at Radio-Canada, was the minister in Pauline Marois’s government who handled the doomed charter of secular values.
It is thought the charter controversy damaged Drainville’s chances but he has several months to shore up his image.
In a Radio-Canada interview Monday morning, Drainville did not renounce his work on the charter when he was asked if he regretted being handed the hot-button issue.
But he showed much more flexibility on the issue of secularism than he has in the past. A different formula could be possible, he said.
“I believe in the idea of a neutral state that respects all convictions, all freedoms of religion,” Drainville said. “I believe the reinforcement of the equality of men and women is required in Quebec society of today.
“Now, should it absolutely be incarnated in the charter, not necessarily. I think there are ways to promote these principles in different ways.”
Agencies/Canadajournal
