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.

Boisclair grew up in the affluent francophone Montreal neighbourhood of Outremont. While attending Jean-de-Brébeuf, a private secondary school, he became the president of the Federation of Quebec College Students (CEGEP university preparation secondary schools in Quebec.) After graduation he attended the University of Montreal, but dropped out after two years. Boisclair still does not possess an undergraduate degree of any kind. 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 became the youngest member ever elected to the Quebec National Assembly. He also quickly garnered a reputation as a party animal in the Quebec City night-life scence. ^[1]

He served as a cabinet minister from 1998 to 2003, under PQ Premiers Lucien Bouchard and Bernard Landry, holding a variety of portfolios including citizenship and immigration. Boisclair and his Chief of Staff, Luc Doray, became the center of a drug and embezzlement scandal during Boisclair's first cabniet post. During an audit, officials discovered that Doray submitted over $30,000 in false expense reports - money Doray was using to feed his cocaine habit. Doray has since plead guilty and during court testimony it was learned that Boisclair authorized some of the expenses.^[2] In September of 2005, Boisclair admitted to personally using cocaine between 1996 and 2003 while serving as a member of the Quebec legislature.

He resigned as opposition parliamentary (house) 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. Boisclair completed the Master in Public Administration program - a program that does not require students to hold a previous university degree. While at Harvard, Boisclair kept a blog recording his experience.

Boisclair currently represents the Montreal-area riding of Pointe-aux-Trembles in the National Assembly of Quebec.

After Bernard Landry resigned in June 2005, Boisclair entered the race to succeed Landry as the PQ's leader. During the campaign, Boisclair admitted to having used cocaine while serving as a cabinet minister in the 1990s. When pressed further on the subject, he refused to comment on the length of time he used the drug or indicate when he stopped.^[3]

Elected as the sixth leader of the Parti Québécois on November 15, 2005, Boisclair earned 53.8% of the party membership vote as compared to his closest rival, Pauline Marois, who garnered 30.6%. For the first time, the PQ allowed telephone voting, resulting in the participation of over 76% of the party membership. 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 incumbent Liberal Party of Jean Charest.

After his election as party leader, Boisclair delivered a speech promising a sovereignty referendum within 2 years of a PQ victory in the next Quebec general election. He went on to say that, under his leadership, the PQ would seek to unilateral separate Quebec from Canada in the event of a majority vote in the next referendum if the party felt it necessary. During a joint press conference with Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe in Montreal on November 20, 2005, Boisclair decried Canada's Clarity Act as unacceptable. He stated that if elected Premier, he would ignore the ruling of the Supreme Court of Canada on referendum question clarity. As party leader, Boisclair will focus the PQ's efforts on the next Quebec provincial election, expect in 2007.

If Boisclair became Premier of Quebec, he would become the first openly gay person elected as a North American head of government. (Former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey became the first openly gay person to serve in a chief executive role, but only publicly revealed his sexual orientation while serving as governor). 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 included Chris Lea of the Green Party of Canada and Allison Brewer of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party.)

On August 14, 2006, Boisclair was elected to the National Assembly in a by-election for the Montreal-area riding of Pointe-aux-Trembles.

Controversy arose when it was revealed that Boisclair participated in a parody of the movie Brokebank Mountain done for a special program for the specialized television channelMusiMax and produced by Quebec comedy group Les Justiciers Masques. In the parody mocking the movie, Boisclair can be seen in a scene which mocks both George W. Bush and Stephen Harperwho are shown together and played by impersonators. The two actors paroding the two leaders were shown half naked in the sketch. Several experts have condemn the action. [4]

• Parti Québécois leadership election, 2005
• Quebec sovereignty movement
• Politics of Quebec
• History of Quebec
• Timeline of LGBT history

General

• Biography at the official National Assembly of Quebec website Template:Fr icon
• Parti Québécois Template:Fr icon
• Campaign forum of André Boisclair Template:Fr icon