Pubdate: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU) Copyright: 2005 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274 Author: Philip Authier Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) I MIGHT HAVE FIRED BOISCLAIR IF I KNEW HE WAS USING COCAINE, LANDRY HINTS At The Minimum, Ex-Premier Says He'd Have Launched A Formal Investigation Andre Boisclair's political career could have come to a swift end had former premier Bernard Landry known that one of his ministers had consumed cocaine. In his first comment on the issue that dogs the front-running Parti Quebecois leadership candidate, Landry said he would have launched a formal investigation. "It would have been a very serious thing for me, but it is theoretical," Landry said yesterday. "I was not aware. "I would have launched an investigation into the circumstances, on the manner, on the frequency, of this and that - but, once again, it is theoretical. It never happened to me." Asked whether he would have asked Boisclair to resign, Landry said: "This is theoretical. I would have had to inform myself of the facts and then I would have judged after the facts." Landry spoke to reporters on his way into the Universite Laval, where he was to deliver a speech. "What I have heard is that it was under Lucien Bouchard that this happened," he said, adding it will be up to the PQ rank-and-file to judge Boisclair's actions. Landry was premier between 2001 and 2003; Bouchard from 1996 to 2001. Boisclair has not said specifically which years he used cocaine. But he was first elected in 1989 and held four different cabinet posts in eight of the nine years the PQ was in power, from 1994 to 2003. He was Landry's house leader in the National Assembly. Boisclair has denied a report in La Presse that, in 1999, Bouchard hauled him in for a dressing down over rumours of his wild lifestyle. Boisclair, who refuses to get specific on the issue, told a TVA political panel on the weekend he stopped taking cocaine "several years ago." Last night on Radio-Canada, Boisclair refused again to clarify the issue, but did say of Landry, "I understand his statement. This is the statement of a responsible man." The return of the cocaine issue comes at a bad time for Boisclair, who this evening faces his main rival, Pauline Marois, in the race. On the weekend, the two sparred verbally on television over who was the source of the cocaine stories. Landry's statement overshadowed the bit of good news the PQ was trying to spin yesterday - that, since Landry's resignation in June sparking the leadership race, 59,201 new members have joined the party. With the help of nine leadership candidates selling membership cards, total membership - adding in 20,000 card renewals - has grown from 57,605 to 137,238. Meanwhile, a new problem emerged for Boisclair, in the form of a group of PQ lefties deciding they preferred Marois to him. She would be either their first or second choice in the November vote. Marois yesterday confirmed she has met privately with the left-wing Syndicalistes et progressistes pour un Quebec libre (SPQ Libre), to discuss a possible alliance against Boisclair now that the SPQ's candidate, Pierre Dubuc, seems to be going nowhere. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom