Bois Klein

André Boisclair has been elected new leader of the Parti Québécois. His main opponent in the race was Pauline Marois; but Boisclair soundly defeated all others, Marois included, with a strong mandate. He's the youngest leader the party has ever had. He also went to Harvard, is openly gay, and is seen as slightly to the right of the main party. None of these tidbits however are of great interest to anyone. What is of great interest are his views sovereignty and his admission to using cocaine while a minister in the 90's.
While the other leadership candidates and the Parti Québécois members have not spoken much of his use of cocaine, there are many that are critical of his views on Canada and sovereignty. During Boisclair's first press conference he stated that Quebec's pursuit of sovereignty is not an attack on Canada. He stated that Quebec must be sovereign to better pursue its place in the world and its goals. Other party members have been harsh on Boisclair because of his softness towards Canada and think he won't pursue sovereignty aggressively enough.
Members of other parties have not however been as forgiving to Mr.Boisclair as his party members have been about his drug problem. Members of the other paries tore into Boisclair about his cocaine use and have said he's not fit to lead. That said, Liberal popularity (both federal and Quebec provincial) is extremely low of late, so the new leader may yet get a chance to prove his mettle. Though to be honest, I hope he doesn't. I'd hate to see La Belle Province leave us.

Speaking of opposition parties, Ralph Klein has been weighing in on the upcoming federal election. Stephen Harper introduced a confidence motion in Parliament this week which will be voted on next week and instigate an election. Klein stated on record that he didn't want the Liberals to win again however he felt this to be inevitable. Klein stated that he thinks the Liberals will win another minority government, and particularly mentioned that this would be because of Stephen Harper. Klein said Canadians are scared of Harper and think he's too right wing (which I certainly believe). Federal Conservative deputy leader Peter Mackay, when asked to comment about what to do about Klein, Mackay replied "duct tape".
Of course Klein's and the Conservative party's officials quickly attempted damage recovery saying Klein and the federal Conservatives have a great relationship and that Klein is a great conservative leader in Canada. They also tried to play down the animosity between Klein and Harper. It's a well known rumour that Klein does not like Harper, but you won't hear that from any of their officials.

BTW, when I ran it on this post the blogger spell checker really screwed up some of the words. It didn't seem to like Boisclair, and it turned Québécois into Québécois.