Better with coke: Why Quebecers love their gay, drug-snorting PQ leadership hopeful

He's got the looks of a matinee idol, a grin that could melt icebergs, and, at 39, in a political formation made up mostly of white-haired veterans, André Boisclair still passes for young. So what better than a little political striptease to sex up his campaign for the Parti Québécois leadership even more? At the onset, he admitted he is gay, and "proud of living in such a tolerant society." Two weeks ago, he went on Tout le monde en parle, the province's hippest talkshow, and admitted to having smoked pot.

Then André Boisclair discovered that playing with fire is a good way to get burned. Reporters began grilling him about his rumoured penchant for booze-fuelled, cocaine-driven all-night revelry. He finally admitted to "youthful errors," adding, "It's all behind me now."

First elected in 1989 at 23, Boisclair became a cabinet minister at 30 and was the opposition house leader when he quit in 2004 to go to Harvard. National Assembly reporters seemed to know Boisclair had used coke more recently, when in cabinet. "I don't think anyone had to leak it to us. We'd heard the rumours," a press gallery veteran says. "It's just that nobody felt the urge to hang out in after-hours gay bars to check them out at the time."

Boisclair was soon reminded how much the PQ -- which has turned on the likes of René Lévesque and Lucien Bouchard -- enjoys lunching on a frontrunner. "I have children of my own and I certainly don't want to see cocaine use become trivialized," said leadership candidate Richard Legendre. François Gendron, a veteran PQ minister, twisted the knife: "We had all heard the rumours. If there is anything else we should know, it's up to André to come forward."

By early last week, Boisclair looked frazzled and on the verge of a meltdown. Besieged by reporters, he finally conceded he had "consumed" while in cabinet. He insisted quite vehemently that he is clean now, and always had his wits about him while at work.

And then Boisclair discovered that road kill can indeed get back in the race, and more. A poll by Léger Marketing showed last Wednesday that despite, or perhaps because, of the ordeal, Boisclair's popularity had shot up, and that the eight other candidates in the Nov. 15 leadership race were eating his dust, with former finance minister Pauline Marois a distant second. The public had seen enough of the press hounding the candidate. "It is a very Catholic reflex: the sinner has confessed his sins, and should be forgiven," Yves Dupré, a Montreal communications expert, says. Journalists were dumbfounded; Boisclair's leadership opponents roped in their dogs before the first of seven candidates' debates last week.

Boisclair, described by a former schoolmate as "a Bourassa-style politician, no hard edge, all-options-open kind of guy," was able to pick himself up, and dance through last Wednesday's debate. A few barbs were traded during the tightly scripted exchange, which was confined to discussing public finances, but "personal" questions were banned. Boisclair promised to pay down the debt -- not a hot PQ priority.

Then, after a newspaper report revealed that the overwhelming majority of the 83,000 or so card-carrying PQ members are baby boomers contemplating retirement, or enjoying it already, Boisclair filled a building with 1,600 enthusiastic Université de Montréal students on Thursday, reportedly selling 300 new membership cards. So, Boisclair is shaken, but, apparently, still on his feet. "If he has no other skeleton in his closet, the race is probably over for Marois and the others," a veteran Liberal organizer says. "What we don't know yet is how big an 'if' that is."

Dupré, a veteran political organizer, warns that the Léger poll doesn't mean much in the long run. "People felt instant sympathy for a man on the ropes -- but in a leadership race or an election, people look for a winner, they don't vote for a victim."

Boisclair's burden now is to convince PQ members that a coke-snorting gay man just off the fast track can lead them to their Promised Land.

Are Quebeckers really THIS immoral? Taking the lead in the polls after confirming he is a cocaine addict, and gay as well???

They just pretend cocaine is no more dangerous than marijuana or tobacco. You must realize Quebecois have a more sophisticated, "European" outlook on drugs and sex than the rest of North America.

And it's not just the separatists who are so libertine. In the news today is the following story about young federalist Liberals:

Monday » October 3 » 2005

Young Liberals bare all for national unity

Isabelle Rodrigue
Canadian Press

Monday, October 03, 2005

Six scantily clad Liberal youth-wing executives are front-and-centre in a poster campaign to begin on Monday that will hit the walls of some Quebec universities and appear in some weekly newspapers. (CP/Federal Young Liberals of Quebec)

They're young, they're Liberals, and they're not afraid to take off their clothes in the name of national unity.

Six scantily clad Liberal youth-wing executives, who posed on Montreal's hip St-Denis Street, are front-and-centre in a poster campaign to begin on Monday that will hit the walls of some Quebec universities and appear in some weekly newspapers.

After young Quebec Liberals came up with the idea, the search for those willing to reveal more than just their thoughts wasn't difficult. ''We had more models than we needed,'' said Brigitte Legault, president of the youth wing of the Quebec federal Liberals. The poster says in French: Children of the Charter Flaunt It. But the message is serious. It notes the importance of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, adopted by a Liberal government, while taking a swipe at sovereigntists. "After a divisive referendum, the separatists are hoping to go right back at it," reads the message, translated from French. "We say no to this exclusive, ethnic and unjustified nationalism."

But the poster was a bit too racy for three Montreal universities - Concordia University, University of Montreal and the University of Quebec at Montreal - which refused to allow it on campus. ''The universities that refused, assured us that it wasn't for political reasons, but rather because of the (nature of the ads) that was maybe a bit too provocative or in bad taste,'' said Marie-Helene Perreault from the Newad agency, in charge of distributing the posters. This isn't the first time young Liberals from Quebec have stirred up controversy with an ad campaign.

Last year, they launched one promoting same-sex marriages using a picture of two women kissing. They also took a firm stance against the anti-missile shield in another campaign at a time when the Liberal party was divided on the issue. This time instead of a focusing on an emerging issue, Legault said the young Liberals are returning to an old problem that is always around, even though many people have put national unity on the backburner. They were inspired by a speech delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew at a youth convention in early September. Speaking to about 300 Liberals, he lashed out at sovereigntists, accusing them of defending outdated values. ''We're taking the same words of Mr. Pettigrew who tells us that since the beginning, we have advocated Liberal values of openness,'' Legault said.

A spokeswoman from University of Montreal said it refused to allow the campaign because it has a policy that only permits publicity from within campus, the government, or other universities. Concordia University and the University of Quebec at Montreal couldn't be reached for comment.

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