BOISCLAIR BECOMES PARTI QUEBECOIS LEADER

QUEBEC -- Andre Boisclair rolled over his rivals to become leader of
the Quebec sovereignty movement Tuesday, brushing aside criticism of
his past cocaine use and doubts about his resolve in the face of crisis.

A charming political dropout with a million-dollar smile, Boisclair
easily beat the prim and proper Pauline Marois, a 56-year-old with
vast cabinet experience.

Boisclair, 39, received 53.7 per cent support among PQ members on the
first ballot when results were tallied Tuesday evening.

Boisclair sailed to victory but the real challenge now begins. He
must rally a party whose hardline elements have devoured leaders of
legendary stature. He must also prepare for an election showdown with
Premier Jean Charest in the next few years.

Marois and the three other main contenders in the PQ race stepped
gingerly around Boisclair's use of the illegal drug while he served
in Lucien Bouchard's cabinet in the late 1990s.

Charest and his Liberal campaigners are unlikely to be so kind.

PQ members, faced with a host of charmless candidates in a field of
eight, followed the lead of Quebec voters who told pollsters they
were ready to forgive Boisclair's cocaine indiscretions.

However, PQ stalwarts including Marois have said Boisclair is a
dangerous choice whose past could come back to haunt the party in an election.

Boisclair faces high expectations. Charest has been stuck at
staggering levels of unpopularity since shortly after coming to power
in 2003. The PQ expects to beat the Liberals and snap Quebec's
35-year tradition of electing governments to two terms.

Considered a relatively soft sovereigntist and a right-winger in a
party of progressives, Boisclair must unite a party whose hawkish
elements have taken down Bernard Landry, Bouchard and even Rene
Levesque for showing hesitation on independence.

The PQ leadership campaign began in September but unofficially kicked
off in the spring when Landry suddenly resigned following a lukewarm
endorsement of his leadership by the party.

Boisclair, who quit politics in 2004 to attend Harvard, was planning
to move to Toronto and gain experience in business. He cancelled
those plans to run, bursting immediately to the front and never looking back.

The five months of debates and stump speeches produced few new ideas
as most candidates, including Boisclair, professed their devotion to
the party's aggressive new platform which calls for a referendum in
the first part of the next PQ mandate.

The campaign was jolted in September when Boisclair admitted he used
cocaine on several occasions as a cabinet minister.

Boisclair chalked it up to youthful indiscretion and actually
received a boost in polls following the revelation.

Boisclair was notably thin-skinned through the crisis, blushing and
abruptly cutting off questions when they became too pointed. He
avoided answering persistent queries on the source of the cocaine and
the frequency of his use.

Pundits wondered how Boisclair would handle a real crisis in
government when he was so easily flustered by the predictable cocaine
controversy.

Some observers wondered what other skeletons ruthless Liberal
opponents could uncover during the next election campaign.

Shortly after Boisclair's cocaine admission, Marois admitted smoking
marijuana when she was 19. She said she didn't like it.

The mother of four served under every PQ premier from Levesque
through Landry, holding key cabinet portfolios including finance,
health and education. She also served as deputy premier.

Once nicknamed the Superwoman of Quebec politics, Marois will now
have to decide her next move. She came in second in the last PQ
leadership race to Pierre Marc Johnson in 1985.

Marois also contemplated a run in 2001 but her campaign never got off
the ground when Landry gathered an overwhelming list of high-powered supporters.