Jean Charest lost his bet after garnering a fraction of the votes from his main rival, Pierre Poilievre, who was elected the new leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) by an overwhelming margin in the first round.
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The long months of merciless battle against a much more popular adversary never allowed the former premier of Quebec to gain the upper hand in the polls or in the field.
Mr. Poilievre received 68.15% of the points, against a meager 16% for Jean Charest, followed by 9.6% for Leslyn Lewis and dust for the last two candidates, Roman Baber and Scott Aitchison.
The new leader marked a change in tone after having long underlined the work of Jean Charest in the referendum campaign of 1995. “Thank you for having saved the country”, launched Mr. Poilievre during his victorious speech.
From day one of the campaign, the momentum was in the Poilievre camp, which already had the support of a significant portion of the membership and the Conservative caucus.
With nearly $7 million in his pocket, Mr. Poilievre’s campaign raised more than double the funds of Mr. Charest’s. In terms of the number of individual donors, the social conservative candidate Leslyn Lewis has overtaken Mr. Charest, who finds himself third.
A failed campaign
Jean Charest entered the arena on March 10, eight months ago to the day.
For his first event, he went to the heart of the Conservative beast, in Calgary, Alberta, to send a message of unity: a former premier of Quebec, a Liberal to boot, can bring Alberta back to decision table in Ottawa.
The outstretched hand was eventually rebuffed.
Mr. Charest lost a major ally when Progressive Conservative running mate Patrick Brown was pushed out by CCP officials in July over an allegation of illegal funding.
Having become leader of the Progressive Conservative Party from 1993 to 1998, Jean Charest had left federal politics to join the Liberal Party of Quebec. He led Quebec from 2003 to 2012.
It was therefore ten years later that Mr. Charest returned to active politics. This time away contributed significantly to his defeat, according to former strategists in Stephen Harper’s government.