A Member of Parliament from Quebec admits he has a drinking problem and needs help to overcome it.

Romeo Saganash, who ran for the leadership of the NDP, was kicked off a plane Friday because he was drunk.

The flight from Montreal to Val d'or had to be delayed because of the incident.

In a statement on his website, Saganash says he's asked party leader Thomas Mulcair to give me him some time off to "take the necessary time to treat this illness."

"I am not looking at excuses, but I know that profound scars were left on me because of my time in residential school. I never shied away from that. The death of my friend and mentor, Jack Layton, also greatly affected me. Like him, I needed a crutch. The leadership race wore me out, on top of taking me away from my children and my loved ones even more often."