POT FAILS TO SMOKE POLS

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.

But rival candidate Jim Flaherty, the finance minister, has also toked.

"Yeah, in my teenage years," said Flaherty, 52. "A couple of times."

But Labour Minister Chris Stockwell, 45, had a different answer.

"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.