QUEBEC — Jean-Martin Aussant, who left a lucrative financial services career that included a stint as vice-president of Morgan Stanley Capital International/Barra in London to run for the Parti Québécois in his hometown of Nicolet, is starting his own party.

Option nationale, announced Monday in his Nicolet-Yamaska riding, between Montreal and Quebec City, would return to sovereignist basics.

Aussant is one of five PQ MNAs who left the PQ in June after party leader Pauline Marois gave her caucus no option but to vote for Bill 204, retroactively confirming the legality of an agreement handing management of Quebec City’s proposed new $400-million arena to Quebecor Media Inc. for 25 years.

An Option nationale government in Quebec would collect all its own taxes, adopt all its own laws and sign all international treaties binding Quebec, the essential points in the definition of sovereignty in René Lévesque’s 1980 referendum question.

But Lévesque proposed as well as economic association with the rest of Canada and merely sought a mandate to negotiate this sovereignty-association arrangement.

Aussant said in a telephone interview from Nicolet that a vote for Option nationale would be a vote for sovereignty, without a referendum, while promising good relations with the rest of Canada.

He added that he rejects the argument that his new party would divide the sovereignist vote.

“It’s already divided,” Aussant said, predicting the sovereignist vote will split in the next election among the PQ, Québec solidaire, Action démocratique du Québec and a new, as-yet-to-be-formed party under François Legault.

Legault calls himself a Quebec nationalist, but has promised not to call a new referendum.

Aussant called Legault’s approach a “lazy option.”

Aussant’s local PQ organization is behind him. He hopes to recruit others from the PQ and newcomers as well.

“We need to have new blood,” he said.

Aussant plans to elaborate a platform and attract new candidates in coming months, but will take a gradual approach, so there are no surprises in the ranks of his new party.

Political parties in Quebec must be authorized by Elections-Québec.

Aussant said he sent the necessary papers to the provincial agency and is confident the name Option nationale would be accepted. His previous choice, Option Québec was rejected because another group has proposed a similar name.

Quebec now has 17 authorized provincial parties:

www.electionsquebec.qc.ca/english/provincial/rapeq/political-parties. php

kdougherty@montrealgazette.com