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, a social democratic and sovereigntist 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.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Political scene 1989 - 2003 3 Party leadership 4 The 2007 Election 4.1 "Les yeux bridés" Controversy 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Early life

Boisclair grew up in the affluent francophone Montreal neighbourhood of Outremont. While attending Collège 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 Université de Montréal, but dropped out after two years. As a result, Boisclair does not possess an undergraduate degree.

[edit] Political scene 1989 - 2003

He joined the Parti Québécois in 1984, and in the 1989 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, a record he held until Simon-Pierre Diamond was elected in 2007. 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. 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.

Since taking the reins of the PQ, Boisclair has created political controversy within his own party. After a questionable appearance in a comedy sketch featuring a homosexual depiction of Stephen Harper and George W. Bush, and his recent attempt to distance the PQ from its traditional union base, a putsch to oust Boisclair developed. Purportedly led by Boisclair's predecessor, Bernard Landry (which he denies), the plan failed and no real threat to Boisclair's leadership emerged. Pundits have speculated that the proximity of the Quebec general election contributed to the putsch's failure.

Boisclair was 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 provincial legislative assembly in a by-election for the Montreal-area riding of Pointe-aux-Trembles. He was re-elected in the general election of March 26, 2007.

[edit] The 2007 Election

In February 2007, Boisclair promised a dream team of high profile candidates for the anticipated Quebec general election, 2007. Comparing his slate to the l'équipe du tonnerre (the thunder team) of former premier and Quiet revolution architect Jean Lesage, Boiscair announced that actor Pierre Curzi, former cabinet member Linda Goupil, TV journalist Bernard Drainville, academic Guy Lachapelle, union leader Marc Laviolette, and former Bloc Quebecois MPs Richard Marceau and Yvan Loubier composed this team. On February 21, 2007 the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec, Lise Thibault, dissolved parliament and called a general election for March 26, 2007.

Boisclair launched his campaign using the slogan "Reconstruisons notre Québec" (Let's rebuild our Quebec). At the beginning of the campaign, Boisclair's Parti Québécois stood five percentage points behind the Quebec Liberals.

During the election campaign, Boisclair became the victim of several homophobic remarks while supporting PQ candidate, Sylvain Gaudreault, in the Jonquière riding. The Quebec social-media scene immediately condemmed Louis Champagne, the radio shock-jock who led the charge against Boisclair. Days later, the radio station's corporate owner, the Corus Group, suspended Champagne.

Boisclair stated throughout his campaign that education would remain a key priority in the PQ's election strategy and that he would organize a new referendum on sovereignty as soon as possible. He also supported new measures targeting home ownership for young families.

Most observers ruled the 2007 leader debate a draw. Critics felt that Boisclair appeared the most aggressive, repeatedly asking the Action démocratique du Québec's (ADQ) Mario Dumont to state the financial model of his political platform.

Election night produced a major disappointment for the Parti Québécois. The party polled its smallest share of the popular vote since 1973 and the PQ came third in seat numbers in the National Assembly - losing Official Opposition status. The 2007 election left Quebec with its first minority government since 1878. While Boisclair's future as the leader of Parti Québécois appears uncertain, he claimed on the day after the election that he has no plans on stepping down.

[edit] "Les yeux bridés" Controversy

In a March 14, 2007 campaign speech to students in Trois-Rivières, Boisclair commented that when he was a student at Harvard, he observed that "about one-third of the students doing their Bachelor's degrees had slanting eyes" (in French: "les yeux bridés"), while describing how citizens of Asian countries are "not just sweatshop workers" but are globally competitive and may even be highly educated. (Only 13% of Harvard students are of Asian descent, many of whom are US citizens.^[5]) Despite complaints from the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations and the Chinese Canadian National Council, Boisclair refused to apologize for the comments, saying "Maybe there's a nuance between the word in French and the word in English, but no way I will excuse myself."^{[6] [7]}

While much of the French-language media have presented this minor controversy as a matter only of concern to the English-language press,^[8] May Chiu, who in 2006 became the Bloc Québécois' first Chinese-Québécoise candidate and was a member of PQ candidate Zhao Xin Wu's 2007 campaign team, stated "calling people slanted eyes has been an insult to Asians for the longest time, and is still used as an insult."^[9] However, his comments were defended by other Québécois, including some of Asian origin.^[10][11] Although the literal translation of his phrase is considered a racial slur in English, the English-language media has generally not pointed out that it isn't considered an insult by most French speakers. The Petit Robert, the best known French dictionary, defines "yeux bridés" as "Eyes characteristic of many Asians" without any mention of negative or racist connotations.

[edit] See also

• Parti Québécois leadership election, 2005
• Quebec sovereignty movement
• Politics of Quebec
• History of Quebec

[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
5. ^ http://vpf-web.harvard.edu/budget/factbook/current_facts/2006OnlineFactBook.pdf
6. ^ Authier, Philip. "'Slanting eyes' comment lost in translation'", 2007-03-16. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
7. ^ Peritz, Ingrid. "No way' will Boisclair apologize for remarks'", 2007-03-16. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
8. ^ "André Boisclair et les «yeux bridés»", 2007-03-15. Retrieved on March 21, 2007.
9. ^ "PQ insider slams Boisclair for 'slanting eyes' comment", 2007-03-16. Retrieved on March 16, 2007.
10. ^ Perreaux, Les. "Andre Boisclair's "slanting eyes" comment heard differently by French ears", 2007-03-18. Retrieved on March 21, 2007.
11. ^ Pellerin, Brigitte. "Don't faint, but i'm siding with a separatist", 2007-03-20. Retrieved on March 21, 2007.

[edit] External links

General

• Biography at the official National Assembly of Quebec website (English)
• Parti Québécois (French)

Preceded by Louise Harel (interim)

Leader of the Opposition (Quebec) 2006–

Succeeded by Mario Dumont (designate)