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.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman