Pur et dur (French: [pyʁ ɛ dyʁ]; a common expression in French literally meaning "pure and hard") is a term used in Quebec politics to refer to hardliners of the Parti Québécois and the Quebec independence movement.
Many of the first "purs et durs" came from the Rassemblement pour l'indépendance nationale who, through entryism, joined the Parti Québécois in the early days of the 1960s.
The media has tied the resignation of every former PQ leader except Jacques Parizeau to the disapproval of the "pur et dur",[citation needed] especially in the case of Pierre-Marc Johnson.
Bertrand was called, by René Lévesque, an "ayatollah in bedroom slippers," mostly because of his vigorous attempts to get the PQ to declare unilateral independence, but later wrote that an "intolerant, ethnocentric, egocentric" Québécois nationalism has been the bane of Quebec and Canada.
Grégoire was a founding member and elected to the National Assembly of Quebec twice but was cast out when he was convicted of having sex with minor girls and sentenced to jail.