JOLIETTE, Que. – Former Quebec cabinet minister Veronique Hivon has become the first official candidate in the race to succeed Pierre Karl Peladeau as Parti Quebecois leader.

Hivon, 46, announced her intention on Monday to seek the sovereigntist party’s top job and bring about a “reinvented PQ.”

“I want youth to be interested again in the Parti Quebecois,” Hivon, 46, said in Joliette, northeast of Montreal.

A member of the legislature since 2008, Hivon is probably best-known for tabling Quebec’s dying-in-dignity bill a few years ago when the PQ was in power.

She said she believes her openness, her sense of responsibility and her desire for consensus are some of her selling points.

“I don’t start to deal with something with preconceived ideas,” Hivon said. “I try to hear everybody and then I make decisions according to what I feel is in the best interest of the population.”

Peladeau surprised the Canadian political world last Monday when he announced he was resigning to spend more time with his young children.

Other ex-cabinet ministers Martine Ouellet and Alexandre Cloutier are also expected to enter the race, which is scheduled to culminate with the leader being chosen between mid-September and mid-October.

Sylvain Gaudreault, a member of the legislature, is leading the party on an interim basis.