Pubdate: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2005 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Author: Susan Riley Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) COCAINE AND PUNISHMENT I was tempted to do a little cocaine yesterday. You can hardly blame me. It was 4 p.m. and I still didn't have a column idea. That's pressure. Besides, a lot of successful people who don't have to produce so much as one column a week have taken cocaine. Andre Boisclair did. So, it is alleged, does supermodel Kate Moss. Even George W. Bush has been accused of snorting coke at Camp David when his dad was president -- a charge he has never quite answered. "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible," said the now clean-and-sober president. That was Boisclair's first response, too, when the frontrunner in the race for the Parti Quebecois leadership was accosted by reporters recently. His cocaine use was a youthful mistake, said Boisclair, who was first elected to Quebec's national assembly in 1989 at the age of 23. But it soon emerged (Quebec City's media/political culture being a tight club) that Boisclair was also using when he was in his 30s, and a minister in Lucien Bouchard's government. This escalation in the story got him mad. It wasn't true that Bouchard had called him to account for his drug use, Boisclair snapped. Nor can anyone claim his dalliance ever affected his performance as a politician, he insisted. Finally, cornered by reporters on his way to a campaign event, he lashed back: "I know what kind of spiral I'm being dragged into. (Next) it will be how many times, and with whom, under what circumstances, at what date, and at which moment? Can't we just move on? What more do you want from me than a confession?" Excessive drinking and drug abuse are almost unheard of among journalists, of course -- we are second only to the Taliban in this regard -- so, naturally, we feel a responsibility to shine a spotlight on reckless, dissolute behaviour, strictly as a public service. (Not that Boisclair, Moss or Bush look particularly wrecked; indeed, all three are, ideology aside, quite attractive.) No one -- well, apart from his rivals -- wants to know the details of Boisclair's drug adventures; the question is whether someone who used an addictive, illegal drug can handle the pressures that come with political life, including, for example, being followed by a pack of braying journalists shouting questions about your former drug use. It is hard on anyone's dignity, but especially hard on thin-skinned, humourless wonks such as Boisclair. That, at least, is how he has looked in recent days; perhaps this is the "spiral" he referred to. He responds defensively to what he considers trivial questions, based on ancient history, and is pounced on for being (see above) thin-skinned, humourless, evasive. Fortunately for him, the Quebec public has, apparently, "moved on." His approval ratings increased 11 per cent in the wake of the cocaine revelation. He is supported by 71 per cent of Quebecers, and 86 per cent of PQ members, far ahead of his closest rival, Pauline Marois (whose cocaine status isn't an issue). Whether he will stay on top after his prickly performance in the first of six leadership debates on Wednesday remains to be seen. Boisclair's problem may not be cocaine, so much as the fact that he is, like Jean Charest and Mario Dumont, another attractive package with little of substance inside. With all the warmth of a Stephen Harper, too. Meanwhile, the uproar over Boisclair in the Quebec press overshadowed a more trifling issue: Paul Coffin, the first Montreal ad executive charged in the sponsorship scandal, was sentenced to two years community work for bilking the government of $1.5 million. His punishment -- apart from a ruined business and heavy debts -- is a gruelling tour of business schools, where he will give lectures on ethics. Talk about sending a message. The message: it's only public money and it's not as if there was any cocaine involved. By contrast, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew has been harshly criticized for taking his chauffeur on a few foreign trips at the cost of $10,000. If Pettigrew were smart (instead of shirty, like Boisclair), he would acknowledge his mistake, repay the $10,000 and deliver a speech on ethics in politics by way of penance. Maybe double-dipping Joe Volpe, minister of dubious expense accounts, could serve as warm-up act. As for myself, I decided not to take cocaine; it sounds like too much trouble. Instead, I want to start writing speeches (maybe on ethics!) for cabinet ministers. One speech for the price of two. Totally drug free. Susan Riley's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. - --- MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman