Jean Charest wants to return to politics. But does politics still want him?
A true conservative movement would favor his return.
MPs from Quebec would encourage him to get started, as would some from Ontario, the Maritimes and even the West.
The “progressive conservatives” seem to have made him their candidate.
Is he really the conservative saviour?
Allow me to have some doubts.
More Trudeau
The Conservatives hope to find in Jean Charest a sort of reincarnation of Brian Mulroney.
A candidate rooted in Quebec, with an undeniable charisma, who could sweep the province as in the 1984 election.
They understand that without Quebec, the Conservatives can only hope for a minority government, in the best scenario.
But this equivalence does not work. Brian Mulroney offered Quebec to renew its place in Canada.
This was embodied in our reintegration into the Canadian constitution and the recognition of a distinct society.
Jean Charest will never propose anything like that. He will never assume a “beautiful risk”.
His anti-nationalism prevents him: he is closer to the Trudeau line, father and son, than to Mulroney. Any Quebec assertion is suspect to him.
The following question arises: in what way, today, is Jean Charest more of a conservative than a liberal?
The party is not, as he himself had affirmed, very different from the one he led from 1995 to 1998?
Doesn’t he have more in common with Francois-Philippe Champagne and Chrystia Freeland than Pierre Poilièvre and Gérard Deltell?
Memory
Added to this is the perception of the Charest regime in the collective memory.
72% of Quebecers have a bad opinion of Jean Charest, according to a recent survey. Only Philippe Couillard has a more negative rating.
A smell of corruption and collapse of Quebec is still linked to it.
Jean Charest has always won in politics. However, his greatest failure is the memory that Quebecers have of his government.
So here it is, if the Conservatives hope to govern again, I am not sure that Jean Charest is the best option.
Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com