André Boisclair (born April 14, 1966 in Montreal, Quebec) is a politician in Quebec, Canada. He is the leader of the Parti Québécois, the main Quebec sovereigntist and social democratic party in Quebec.
Between January 1996 and March 2003, Boisclair served as Citizenship and Immigration Minister and Social Solidarity Minister under former Premier of Quebec Lucien Bouchard and as Environment Minister under former Premier Bernard Landry.
He won the Parti Québécois leadership election on November 15, 2005, becoming the first openly gay person in North America elected to lead a major political party.
Early life and career Boisclair was born in Montreal. He joined the Parti Québécois in 1984, and in the 1989 Quebec general election he was elected to represent the Gouin riding as a PQ candidate; at 23 years old, he was the youngest member ever elected to the Quebec National Assembly. He served as a cabinet minister from 1998 to 2003, under PQ Premiers Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry, holding a variety of portfolios. He and his Chief of Staff, Luc Doray, were at the heart of a scandal. Doray, a cocaine user, resigned after being caught submitting false expense reports. He resigned as opposition parliamentary leader and member of the National Assembly in August 2004 to attend the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, where he attended lectures by Michael Ignatieff. While at Harvard, Boisclair kept a blog recording his experience.
Party leadership After Bernard Landry's resignation in June 2005, Boisclair entered the race to succeed Landry as the PQ's leader. In the course of the campaign, Boisclair admitted under journalistic pressure to having used cocaine while he was a cabinet minister in the 1990s. On November 15, 2005, Boisclair was elected as the sixth leader of the Parti Québécois with 53.8% of the votes compared to 30.6% for the closest runner-up Pauline Marois. For the first time, the voting was conducted by telephone and over 76 percent of the Parti Québécois membership participated. Boisclair delivered a uniting speech in which he promised to offer the world the positive values that would be championed by an independent Quebec; he has promised a sovereignty referendum within 2 years of a PQ victory, promising a unilateral separation from Canada in the event of a majority vote.
In a joint press conference with Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe in Montreal on November 20, 2005, Boisclair asserted Canada's Clarity Act was unacceptable. In doing so he further stated that if he were elected Premier of the Province of Quebec he would ignore the ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada with respect to the referendum on Quebec independence from Canada he promises to hold once elected. Boisclair's task is now to consolidate the party ahead of provincial elections that are likely to be called within the next two years. Polls taken at the time of his leadership victory in November 2005 suggested that Boisclair's Parti Québécois would win a landslide victory over the Liberal government of Jean Charest.
If Boisclair became Premier of Quebec, he would be the first openly gay person to be elected as a North American head of government (former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey was the first openly gay person to serve as head of government, but came out after being elected). Boisclair's victory also makes him the first openly gay politician in Canada to win the leadership of a party with legislative representation. (Previous openly gay Canadian political party leaders Chris Lea of the Green Party of Canada and Allison Brewer of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party led much less politically prominent parties.) On August 14, 2006, Boisclair was elected to the National Assembly in a by-election for the Montréal-area riding of Pointe-aux-Trembles. In August 2006, Boisclair announced the composition of its leader of opposition cabinet. Line-Sylvie Perron will serve as chief of staff and Bernard Lauzon has been appointed as economic advisor.
*Wikipedia
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