editorial comment And this is why we love Canada (or Quebec, at least)

Quebec politician Andre Boisclair's admission that he used cocaine is doing wonders for his popularity.

Polls show Boisclair has extended his lead in the race to head the separatist Parti Quebecois after he told reporters he used the drug in the 1990s when he was a government minister in Canada's French-speaking province.

His confession ``boosted his prominence and may have helped his image by making him look honest,'' said Claude Gauthier, an analyst at CROP Inc., a pollster in Montreal. ``It surely isn't for what he had done but rather for the way he dealt with the issue.''

The boost in Boisclair's popularity reflects the support for decriminalizing marijuana in a province that is ``more tolerant and less moralizing,'' said Christian Dufour, a political scientist. At a Sept. 28 televised debate, not one of Boisclair's eight rivals mentioned his cocaine habit.

People in Quebec ``respect the private lives of their politicians,'' Dufour, a professor at Ecole Nationale d'Administration Publique in Montreal, said in an interview. ``Had this happened anywhere else in North America, Mr. Boisclair would have been crucified politically.''

Boisclair's treatment contrasts with U.K. model Kate Moss, who was dropped by advertising sponsors including fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz AB after British newspapers published pictures last month allegedly showing the 31-year-old snorting cocaine.

`Teflon Politician'

La Presse, Quebec's second-most read daily, branded Boisclair the ``Teflon politician.'' The paper's cartoonist, Serge Chapleau, depicted Quebec Premier Jean Charest, whose popularity hit a low earlier this year, preparing to snort flour while asking ``Hey! Can I also talk to you about my youthful indiscretions?''

While newspaper reports of Boisclair's cocaine use surfaced in June, the issue didn't boil over until the party hosted a Sept. 16 press conference to kick off the campaign. Boisclair is vying to replace former leader Bernard Landry, who resigned in June. The winner will be announced Nov. 15.

When asked to comment on the allegations, Boisclair, 39, initially said he had ``lived my youth like many others'' and had since ``moved on.''

Three days later, Boisclar was more specific. He acknowledged the cocaine use and added: ``I was never in a position where I exercised my ministerial responsibilities under the influence of anything. I always behaved responsibly.''

Boisclair refused to say how long he used cocaine and at what point he stopped taking the illegal drug, the Globe and Mail reported Sept. 21.

Popularity Rises

The admission raised Boisclair's popularity by about seven percentage points, according to a Sept. 27 CROP poll. His 46 percent support is more than double that of Pauline Marois, a former provincial finance minister who scored 19 percent. The poll of 1,003 people is accurate to within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

``It's his private life and it never affected his activities as minister,'' said Roger Belisle, 56, a partner in a handrail company in Gatineau, Quebec. ``It shouldn't prevent him from becoming premier.''

Boisclair, a Montreal native, hasn't been shy about his private life. He disclosed his homosexuality in 2000 during an interview with the Voir weekly magazine, and told a Radio-Canada television talk show last month that he was single. Boisclair also has admitted to smoking pot, a drug he favors legalizing.

He wouldn't be the first Quebec politician to be forgiven by voters. In 1977, Parti Quebecois Premier Rene Levesque struck and killed a homeless Montreal man while driving home from a party. Levesque, who didn't take a sobriety test and wasn't wearing glasses as required by his driving permit, wasn't charged.

In the Beginning

Boisclair was 23 when first elected to the provincial legislature, and became a minister at 29, when he oversaw the environment ministry under former Premier Lucien Bouchard. He then served as immigration minister under Landry. Boisclair, who scaled Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro in 2003, doesn't mention the cocaine issue on his Web page. He declined to comment for this story, said Nataly Lemyre, a spokeswoman for his campaign.

Whoever leads the separatist party may end up as Quebec's next premier with a mandate to hold a referendum on sovereignty. The CROP poll showed the Parti Quebecois leading the governing Liberal Party. The same poll found 51 percent of Quebeckers would vote for sovereignty, up from 46 percent in January.

Support for independence has increased because of a federal funding scandal and a perception the government in Ottawa is attaching strings to money used to fund provincial programs such as daycare. The separatists lost the last referendum in 1995 by 54,000 votes.

The cocaine use has some analysts wondering if Boisclair is the right man to lead the party, let alone the province.

``Maybe his use of the drug is related to the stress of that job,'' Montreal Gazette columnist Don MacPherson wrote Sept. 21. ``How will he cope with the greater pressure of being premier of Canada's most difficult province to govern, let alone leading it through secession?''

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