TORY LEADER HOPEFULS ADMIT TO SMOKING POT

'I Never Exhaled,' Jokes Labour Minister

TORONTO -- Three of five candidates vying to replace Premier Mike
Harris for leadership of Ontario's law-and-order Conservative party
say they've smoked pot -- and one even joked he's yet to exhale.

It's an admission that might once have caused political ambitions to
go up in smoke, but attitudes both about the use of marijuana and
expectations about honesty from politicians appear to have changed
the situation.

"Only at Argo (football) games . . . when you had to," said Ernie
Eves, 55, breaking into uproarious laughter when questioned about his
marijuana use.

It only happened on "one or two occasions," said Eves, who many
predict will win the race to replace Harris on Saturday.

But rival candidate Jim Flaherty, the finance minister who made a
name for himself as attorney general pushing his tough-on-crime
agenda and cracking down on squeegee kids, has also toked.

"Yeah, in my teenage years," said Flaherty, 52. "A couple of times."
But, Flaherty added quickly, it was a walk on the wild side that
didn't last very long.

Still, two of the Tory candidates -- Health Minister Tony Clement,
41, and Elizabeth Witmer, 55, minister of the environment -- deny
ever smoking up.

But Labour Minister Chris Stockwell, 45, who is known for enjoying a
good party, had to think when asked. "I never exhaled," Stockwell
responded in a nod to former U.S. president Bill Clinton's famous and
widely ridiculed assertion that he had smoked marijuana -- but never
inhaled.

Stockwell reconsidered.

"Yes, sure, when I was in school I did," he said.

And besides, he said -- no one would believe him if he denied it.