MONTREAL GAY POL'S DRUG USE INCREASES POPULARITY

Andre Boisclair Is Top Candidate to Lead the Parti Quebecois

Gay politician, Andre Boisclair, remains the frontrunner in the race
to lead Quebec's separatist party, Parti Quebecois, despite his recent
admission that he used cocaine while serving in the provincial parliament.

Parti Quebecois members are scheduled to vote for party leader by
telephone Nov. 13 to 15. There are nine candidates. As of
mid-September, Boisclair appeared to have twice the support of his
nearest rival, Pauline Marois, a former deputy premier who has held
several senior cabinet positions.

In 1989, at 23, Boisclair began his political career as the youngest
person to be elected to the National Assembly of Quebec. Boislcair
served as citizenship & immigration minister and as social solidarity
minister in former Premier Lucien Bouchard's Parti Quebecois cabinet.
He also served as environment minister in former Premier Bernard
Landry's Parti Quebecois cabinet. In 2004 he attended Harvard's John
F. Kennedy School of Government.

Boisclair is described as a centrist -- cautious around the
sovereignty issue and not focused on having a referendum on
independence soon.

The fact that Boisclair is gay has not been an issue in the campaign.
Canadians have elected an openly gay men to Parliament and mayor of
Winnipeg.

With his good looks and urban flair, he has emerged as the top
candidate to lead the party that seeks independence for the
French-speaking Canadian province.

All of the seats in Quebec's provincial legislature are occupied by
two parties -- the Liberal Party and the Parti Quebecois. The Liberal
Party is losing popularity, and some political observers believe that
the Parti Quebecois could win the next provincial election. If
Boisclair is leader of the Parti Quebecois when this happens, he could
become Premier of Quebec.

Admitted Cocaine Use

Asked in September by an Ontario newspaper whether he had used cocaine
while in office, Boisclair said, "What I want to tell you is that I
made mistakes, things I regret. Yes, I consumed. I can't be clearer
than that."

Boisclair's admission created a stir in the Canadian press, but it
does not seem to have harmed him in the polls -- the Montreal Gazette
reported that he gained 11 points the day after he admitted the drug
use.

David Rayside, professor of political science and director of the
Center for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto, said
that being openly gay can actually be an advantage in Canadian
politics because voters tend to believe that if candidates are open
about their sexual orientation, they will be open about other matters
as well.

Quebecois are more accepting of sexual difference than most Canadians,
and social conservatives are less influential in the French-speaking
province, Rayside said. But the fact that Boisclair has not suffered
from the news about his drug use is, "at some level surprising even by
Canadian standards."

One possible explanation is a reaction against trying to attack a
candidate, Rayside said.

"Attack ads are risky in Canada and particularly in Quebec because
there is an attitude in Quebec and in Canada that one's personal life
does not matter. ... We tend to know little about the religious
beliefs of politicians, about their family lives, their kids tend not
to be in the limelight."

Philippe Lucas, a French Canadian from Montreal, who works with the
drug policy organization DrugSense said, "Quebequers have a very
European attitude about social issues like drug use and sex. ...

"Although formerly politically dominated by an authoritarian Catholic
Church, Puritanism has no place in Quebec culture, and most of us
consider the prudish attitude associated with English Canada to be a
result of England and America's conservative social influence."

In Montreal, cocaine use, although frowned upon, was widespread
throughout the '80s, he said, and there is a general feeling that if
Anglos frown upon certain behavior (i.e. sex and drugs), then it must
be OK.

Lucas said that some in the French Canadian press declared Boisclair's
candidacy dead after news hit about his drug use, and that Boiscalir's
honest and self-effacing approach to discussing the matter was
responsible for his recovery in the polls.