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QUEBEC

Federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair criticized Quebec sovereignty on Tuesday, but also brandished the nationalist card by promising Quebecers a special status in Canada if his party forms the government in this fall’s election.

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Quebec separating from Canada would hurt the middle class, Mulcair told reporters after a visit to a Quebec City microbrewery one day before Wednesday’s Fête nationale, a celebration often used by sovereigntists to rally support for their cause.

Independence is “a vision that risks really hurting the middle class,” Mulcair said, adding his goal in politics is to “help families” as opposed to “making them suffer through constitutional wrangling.”

But Mulcair, who was environment minister under a previous Quebec Liberal government, reminded reporters of his party’s so-called Sherbrooke Declaration of 2005, a document that stated Quebec should be granted “specific powers and room for manoeuvring.”