Globe and Mail Update/Canadian Press:
By SCOTT DEVEAU
Tuesday, November 15, 2005 Posted at 9:01 PM EST
André Boisclair was named the new leader of the Parti Québécois Tuesday evening after winning a majority victory on the first ballot.
Mr. Boisclair won 53.7 per cent of the vote following a controversy-plagued campaign to lead the Quebec sovereignty movement.
"I accept with humility and with great enthusiasm the mandate you have given me," Mr. Boisclair told an enthusiastic crowd in Quebec City.
"Two things are clear for us now — first, in the next election campaign, the Parti Quebecois will seek a mandate to hold a referendum on Quebec sovereignty as soon as possible," he added. "And we will present Quebecers with a plan to give them a country."
Mr. Boisclair was dogged by throughout the campaign for his use of cocaine while he was a cabinet minister with the PQ. Throughout the campaign, Mr. Boisclair brushed aside the issue, claming he'd stopped using the drug eight years ago and had never purchased it himself.
He eventually refused to answer questions about his past drug use, chalking it up to a youthful indiscretion. He even threatened to sue one of the other candidates if they continued insinuating there were more skeletons in his closet to be found.
Mr. Boisclair will likely have to wait until 2007 before getting a crack at defeating the governing Liberals, although Premier Jean Charest could wait until the spring of 2008 before calling the election.
PQ president Monique Richard announced his victory at rally in Quebec City. The 140,000 membership began voting for the leader by phone Sunday and were able to cast their ballots until the polls closed at 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.
Mr. Boisclair and Pauline Maroiswere were considered to be the leadership favourites.
Mr. Boisclair, 39, joined cabinet in 1996 under Lucien Bouchard, sharing conservative fiscal policies and a desire for a new political arrangement with Canada.
He rose to higher prominence as environment and municipal affairs minister in the dying days of the last PQ government under Bernard Landry, who stepped down last June, prompting the leadership campaign.
While Mr. Boisclair was thought to be a bit of wild card, the other frontrunner was just the opposite.
Although the mechanic's daughter from St-Redempteur, near Quebec City, holds an impressive resume in provincial politics, it was not enough to claim the leadership.
Ms. Marois dream of becoming the first female premier of Quebec was crushed with Mr. Boisclair's victory.
She has been deputy premier and held the most prominent portfolios in the provincial cabinet — finance, health and education. Known as a hard worker and tough administrator, the former social worker and teacher helped draft Quebec's youth protection legislation, hailed at the time as the most progressive in North America.
Ms. Marois, like most of the other PQ candidates, did not directly go after Mr. Boisclair admitted drug use, preferring to talk of the need for a leader with "moral authority."
Former head of the Green Party, Jean Ouimet, Louis Bernard, a former chief of staff for René Lévesque, hard-line separatist Jean-Claude St-André, Ghislain Lebel, Pierre Dubuc and Richard Legault were also in the running for the leadership.
Another candidate, Gilbert Paquette, dropped out the race last week before throwing his support behind Ms. Marois.
But the candidates themselves were not the only controversial element of the campaign. Some questions have arisen over the validity of the voting system used to select the leader. The PQ membership called in their votes using touch-tone phones.
Voters chose, in order of preference, the names of four candidates. If the voter's top choice was eliminated after the first ballot was counted, then the second choice would be tabulated and so forth until a leader is chosen by a simple majority.
However, at least one dog and a houseplant registered to vote, according to a source in one of the leadership campaigns.
Pixelle Daoust, a long-haired Chihuahua, and a plant called Gilbert Laplante were able to register as PQ members and received all the necessary credentials needed to cast a telephone vote, according to the source. The dog even received a birthday card recently from interim party leader Louise Harel. (For the record, Pixelle voted for Mr. Boisclair, and the plant for the environmentalist candidate Mr. Ouimet).
"The system is riddled with potential fraudulent practices that are difficult to monitor," said the source, who asked not to be identified.
The party says it has taken every precaution to prevent tampering with the voting system, asserting it is foolproof. But there are a growing number of incidents that point to a potential scandal, though no immediate complaints were filed following the results Tuesday.
