COCAINE USE ENDED 7-8 YEARS AGO, AND I NEVER BOUGHT DRUG: BOISCLAIR

Gloves Come Off; Front-Runner Told He's A Time Bomb

Andre Boisclair told reporters last night that he took cocaine
"several times," he stopped "seven or eight" years ago, and he did
not buy the drug.

"I made a mistake," he said after another candidate for the Parti
Quebecois leadership said his admission in September that he took
cocaine made him a "time bomb" the PQ's federalist opponents could
use to advantage in a future referendum campaign.

"It is a mistake of my past," Boisclair said. "I never had any
problems of addiction."

Boisclair, front-runner in the PQ leadership race, has previously
accused Pauline Marois, running a distant second in polls, of
orchestrating a whispering campaign against him.

Last night he appeared to renew his attack on Marois.

"What is hurting the Parti Quebecois at this time is a strategy like
the one we are seeing," he said. "Someone is trying to destabilize
people from the Parti Quebecois. ... We have to be clear. The rumours
by people who want to put me in a caricature, in a hyperbole, that
has to stop."

Marois denied she was behind the declaration by Jean Ouimet, another
leadership candidate, that Boisclair is a "time bomb."

Ouimet said the federalist side could play on doubts about Boisclair
in a referendum campaign.

"It isn't remotely controlled by my organization," she said, adding,
"And I didn't call Victor-Levy Beaulieu.

Writing in mass-circulation Le Journal de Montreal, Beaulieu, author
of several popular television series and owner of the VLB publishing
house, called on Boisclair to withdraw from the race.

Like Ouimet, Beaulieu said federalists could use his drug use - or
some other skeleton in his closet - as a weapon against the sovereignist side.

Reporters asked Boisclair for more details, such as the precise date
he stopped taking cocaine, who supplied him with it, and whether he
was in contract with criminals selling the illegal drug.

Boisclair supporters, packing the room where the leadership
candidates met reporters after their debate, hooted in derision.

"I didn't write it down in my agenda," Boisclair said of the date he
stopped taking cocaine.

As for who gave him the drug, "I won't give names," Boisclair said,
alleging Premier Jean Charest has admitted he smokes pot.

"Did Mr. Charest say who he bought it from? Come on."

The theme of last night's debate was education, but most of the
candidates linked education with sovereignty.

"The only way is through sovereignty," said Richard Legendre,
speaking of Quebec's underfunded education system.

The exception was Louis Bernard, who talked about the importance of
investing more in early childhood education, the role of motivated
teachers and the need for more training for people already in the workforce.

"Tomorrow's Quebec is the children of today," he said.

In the debate, Boisclair asked Marois whether she would agree to his
plan to spend one-third of Quebec's budget on education.

Marois said that would be $30 billion, after sovereignty, and asked
where he'd get the money.

Boisclair said his plan would only cost an extra $1 billion,
prompting Marois to let off the zinger, "I think that you have to go
back and do your homework."

Boisclair also said he would apply a plank in the PQ program calling
for an end to the 60 per cent subsidies most private high schools get.