NOBODY CARES ABOUT BOISCLAIR'S COKE

Don Macpherson's Nov. 2 column ("Cocaine questions hard to kick"),
along with other media comments about how Andre Boisclair's past drug
use "won't go away," would be silly if they weren't bordering on irresponsible.

The media can thank themselves for perpetuating the discussion, and
are playing to the desperation of Boisclair's opponents in the process.

This is Quebec. We are not the conservative zealots of other
provinces and countries. And Boisclair's success to date - despite
the cocaine admissions - are evidence that Quebecers are more
concerned with getting a Parti Quebecois leader with fresh ideas and
some vision.

Boisclair already has told us what we need to know. Macpherson might
care about the details (Did Boisclair take cocaine in a toilet in Old
Montreal in July 1995 with a waiter or was it on a coffee table in
Sherbrooke in December 1994 with a bank teller?) but I certainly don't.

Other than a few reporters, I don't think anybody else will, either.

D.R. Gooch

Montreal