Gay politician Andre Boisclair leads the race for leadership of the Parti Québécois, despite admitted cocaine use. His poll numbers actually increased after he revealed he used the drug while in officePosted on 11/11/2005 10:26:47 AM PST by kingattax
Andre Boisclair is top candidate to lead the Parti Québécois
Gay politician, Andre Boisclair, remains the frontrunner in the race to lead Quebec’s separatist party, Parti Québécois, despite his recent admission that he used cocaine while serving in the provincial parliament.
Parti Québécois 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 Québécois cabinet. He also served as environment minister in former Premier Bernard Landry’s Parti Québécois 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 Québécois. The Liberal Party is losing popularity, and some political observers believe that the Parti Québécois could win the next provincial election. If Boisclair is leader of the Parti Québécois 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
Gay politician Andre Boisclair leads the race for leadership of the Parti Québécois, despite admitted cocaine use. His poll numbers actually increased after he revealed he used the drug while in office
Hey, if he admitted he sodomized young boys, his popularity would probably soar thru the roof!
Clinton is loved there too.
Canada and Europe (or should I say EURABIA) are mere shadows of their former selves. Their culture, politics and people have been sissified and indoctrinated into robotic submissiveness to the point of self-destruction. And that destruction is coming - it's only a matter of time now.
Nice to see that the voters have their priorities in line.
Yeah, that's logical. Aren't heterosexual politicians open about their sexual orientation?
Too bad Caligula is dead. He'd have a bright future in Canadian politics.
Maybe Jean Charest should have passed around some nose candy when they were holding that referendum on Quebec sovereignty.
It would have been a more effective way of bribing the Frenchies.
:)
"Boislcair served as citizenship & immigration minister and as social solidarity minister " WTF does a social solidarity minister do?
cocaine and other guys, apparently
Probably at a good salary, too!
being openly gay can actually be an advantage in Canadian politics
---How absolutely scrumptious of them for being so "with" it. If that is an advantage, what the hell is a disadvantage?
Quebec is so liberal, it makes the "blue states" look like a redneck haven...
Almost anywhere else on earth, being a gay cocaine addict would be a kiss of death, even in English Canada.
I don't understand what is wrong with Queerbeckers!!!
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