As Canadian passport hopefuls line city blocks to get their travel documents, the Parti Québecois is offering a solution: independence. To mark the Fête nationale on June 24, the party has produced a draft passport for the would-be independent country of Quebec.
The passports, available online, feature images of Quebec landmarks, including the Parliament Building in Quebec City, the Sir Georges-Étienne Cartier monument near Montreal's avenue du Parc, and the Île-d'Orléans Bridge.
Also featured is Parti Québecois founder, René Lévesque.
Draft Quebec passport pages showing the Île-d'Orléans Bridge and the Sir Georges-Étienne Cartier monument.Parti Québécois
The non-legal document includes a statement by the party's current leader, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, and a signature box that declares its holder is "resolutely in love with Quebec."
Draft Quebec passport pages showing Parti Québécois founder René Lévesque and the Parliament Building, home of the National Assembly, in Quebec City.Parti Québécois
"Quebec has everything it takes to become a country; this passport is an illustration of this possibility," St-Pierre Plamondon said in a separate statement published on the party website.
"It is to show, in concrete terms, that we have the means to say YES. And it's a positive and unifying way for Quebecers of all stripes to engage in a discussion about our collective identity."
On Friday, St-Pierre Plamondon handed out 1,000 print versions of the mock-up Quebec passport in his riding of Bourget, in Montreal's Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough.
"When I travel, I have to show my Canadian passport. Yet I don't feel like one," he added in the online post. "Many Quebecers, I think, feel the same way."
"I will be so proud — as a Quebecer, and as an independentist — the day I show the customs officer my Quebec passport."
