MONTREAL - Quebec's upstart third party scored the coup of the young election campaign, as the province's former anti-corruption czar is poised to run for the Coalition Avenir Quebec party (CAQ).

Jacques Duchesneau, former Montreal police chief and one-time head of Canada's air-security watchdog, will be a candidate for the CAQ (Coalition for the Future of Quebec), sources told QMI Agency on Friday.
CAQ Leader Francois Legault didn't confirm the news Friday, but he could make the announcement as early as Saturday.

Securing Duchesneau would be a major coup for Legault, who is poised for a breakthrough among voters tired of Liberal corruption allegations and PQ talk of separation.

Duchesneau would also have plenty of potentially embarrassing information on both traditional parties.
He shook up Quebec's political class by leaking his own anti-corruption report to the media after he got the impression the Liberal government would shelve it.

Last fall he referred to the mob as the construction industry's "silent partner" that strong-arms firms through a "pizzo," or protection tax, while enforcing the law of silence known as omerta.
Some of the ill-gotten gains were allegedly kicked back to municipal and provincial parties.

Premier Jean Charest called a public inquiry last year after Duchesneau made his revelations.

The election will be held on Sept 4. Charest is seeking his fourth consecutive mandate, but a poll earlier this week indicated the PQ had a slight lead in popular support just before Charest called the election Wednesday.