MONTREAL -- Claude Charron, who resigned his cabinet post after pleading guilty to a charge of shoplifting, will resign his seat in the Quebec Legislature, La Presse reported today.
Charron, 35, will formally resign as the member for the east Montreal riding of St. Jacques within a week, the French-language daily newspaper reported.
La Presse said Charron would announce his resignation to the riding association of St. Jacques on Monday.
Charron quit as government house leader in February, the day before he admitted stealing a $120 tweed sports jacket from a downtown Eaton department store. He was fined $300.
Charron's political career, which began 12 years ago when he was elected as the youngest MNA ever to be elected to the National Assembly, received another blow last month when he was charged with driving with a blood-alcohol level higher than the legal limit.
Charron, a diminutive, bushy-haired politician renowned for his oratorial skills, said last year that he had been under emotional pressure after being falling under suspicion during the so-called 'pornobec' scandal last fall.
A Montreal television station alleged that one of Charron's aides had participated in the making of pornographic films using National Assembly facilities.
The report was later retracted, but Charron said he had never fully recovered from the controversy and said he considered it a factor in the shoplifting incident.
One of the original seven Parti Quebecois members to be elected in 1970, Charron has discussed returning to teaching or taking up journalism.
He receives a lifetime pension of $27,000 annually for his 12 years of service in the legislature.
