André Boisclair

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André Boisclair (born April 14, 1966 in Montreal, Quebec) is a politician in Quebec, Canada. He is the leader of the Parti Québécois, the main Quebec sovereigntist and social democratic party in Quebec.

Between January 1996 and March 2003, Boisclair served as Citizenship and Immigration Minister and Social Solidarity Minister under former Premier of Quebec Lucien Bouchard and as Environment Minister under former Premier Bernard Landry. He won the Parti Québécois leadership election on November 15, 2005, becoming the first openly gay person in North America elected to lead a major political party.

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[edit] Early life and career

Boisclair grew up in the affluent francophone Montreal neighbourhood of Outremont. While attending Jean-de-Brébeuf, a private secondary school, he became the president of the Federation of Quebec College Students (university preparatory and technical trade schools known as CEGEP in Quebec.) After graduation he attended the University of Montreal, but dropped out after two years. As a result, Boisclair does not possess an undergraduate degree.

He joined the Parti Québécois in 1984, and in the 1989 Quebec general election he was elected to represent the Gouin riding as a PQ candidate. At 23 years old, he became the youngest member ever elected to the Quebec National Assembly. He also quickly garnered a reputation as a party animal in Quebec City's night-life scene. [1]

He served as a cabinet minister from 1998 to 2003, under PQ Premiers Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry, holding a variety of high profile portfolios. During his time in office, Boisclair and his chief of staff, Luc Doray, became the center of a drug and embezzlement scandal. After a routine audit, officials discovered that Doray submitted over $30,000 in false expense reports and authorities later discovered that Doray had used the money to feed his cocaine habit.[2] Doray plead guilty to defrauding the government and during court testimony it was learned that Boisclair authorized some of the expenses.[3], [4] The ensuing investigation cleared Boisclair of any wrongdoing - he was never accused nor charged with any crime. However, in September of 2005, Boisclair admitted to personally using cocaine between 1996 and 2003 while serving as a member of the Quebec legislature.

Boisclair continued to served as a member of the National Assembly until he resigned in August 2004 to attend the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. At the time of his resignation, Boisclair held the position of opposition parliamentary (house) leader. Boisclair completed the Master's in Public Administration program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government - a program that does not require students to hold a previous university degree. While at Harvard, Boisclair attended lectures by Michael Ignatieff and kept a blog recording his experience.

Boisclair currently represents the Montreal-area riding of Pointe-aux-Trembles in the National Assembly of Quebec.

[edit] Party leadership

After Bernard Landry resigned in June 2005, Boisclair entered the race to succeed Landry as the PQ's leader. Elected as the sixth leader of the Parti Québécois on November 15, 2005, Boisclair earned 53.8% of the party membership vote as compared to his closest rival, Pauline Marois, who garnered 30.6%. For the first time, the PQ allowed telephone voting, resulting in the participation of over 76% of the party membership. Polls taken at the time of his leadership victory in November 2005 suggested that Boisclair's Parti Québécois would win a landslide victory over the incumbent Liberal Party of Jean Charest.

After his election as party leader, Boisclair delivered a speech promising a sovereignty referendum within 2 years of a PQ victory in the next Quebec general election. He went on to say that, under his leadership, the PQ would seek to unilateral separate Quebec from Canada in the event of a majority vote in the next referendum, if the party felt it necessary. During a joint press conference with Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe in Montreal on November 20, 2005, Boisclair decried Canada's Clarity Act as unacceptable. He stated that if elected Premier, he would ignore the ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada on referendum question clarity. As party leader, Boisclair will focus the PQ's efforts on the next Quebec provincial election, expect in 2007.

If Boisclair became Premier of Quebec, he would become the first openly gay person elected as a North American head of government. (Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey became the first openly gay person to serve in a chief executive role, but only publicly revealed his sexual orientation while serving as governor). Boisclair's victory also makes him the first openly gay politician in Canada to win the leadership of a party with legislative representation. (Previous openly gay Canadian political party leaders included Chris Lea of the Green Party of Canada and Allison Brewer of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party.)

On August 14, 2006, Boisclair was elected to the National Assembly in a by-election for the Montreal-area riding of Pointe-aux-Trembles.

[edit] Parody controversy

Controversy arose when the media revealed that Boisclair accepted participation in a parody of the movie Brokeback Mountain. Comissioned by the speciality channel MusiMax and produced by the Quebec comedy group Les Justiciers Masqués (noted for their celebrity pranks), the year-end program will appear on Quebec television. In the parody of Brokeback mountain, Boisclair "finds" both George W. Bush and Stephen Harper - played by half-nude actors - together in a tent. Boisclair addresses the two parodied leaders saying that "Quebec will never join them in that [kind of play]". A handful of political experts and journalists have criticized Boisclair's judgement. He later regretted his involvement and said that he might have overlooked the possible political consequences of his cameo appearance. [4][5]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "CBC News Indepth: PARTI QUÉBÉCOIS [1]
  2. ^ "Globe and Mail" [2]
  3. ^ "Globe and Mail" [3]
  4. ^ http://globeandmail.workopolis.com/servlet/Content/qprinter/20051109/BOISCLAIR09

[edit] External links

General
Preceded by:
Louise Harel (interim)		 Parti Québécois leader
2005–		 Succeeded by:
Incumbent
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