After a start to the campaign in the shy leadership race in the West, and weighed down by COVID-19 thereafter, Jean Charest appeared invigorated in front of his supporters during his first rally in Quebec, Thursday evening. The former Quebec prime minister also suddenly showed himself to be more biting towards his main rival, Pierre Poilievre, whom he accused of wanting to “Americanize” Canadian politics.
The choice is clear, he hammered several times during his twenty-minute speech at the Château Royal de Laval. “Do we want to take the American way? Adopt the same political culture that leads to deep division? Or do we want to unite our party instead? he repeated.
The message was the same as when he launched his campaign in Calgary two weeks ago, after which Mr. Charest had to isolate himself, suffering from COVID-19. “We have to unite our party. You absolutely have to collect it. We need a leader who also knows how to prepare an election campaign. However, it is a subject that I know. That’s good. »
But the speech also included, this time, a warning about the intentions of Pierre Poilievre – without however ever naming him.
Mr. Charest defended himself from feeling the need to attack the one that almost all conservative observers give as a good leader for the moment, whom he accused of wanting to “build a country” on “slogans” imported from the United States. United. “It’s the same issue. […] that I constantly hear when I meet people, ”he argued to explain his remarks, in a press scrum after his speech.
Jean Charest also indicated that he wanted to find a “deeply divided” Canada to bring Canadians together, including “people of heart” from Alberta who “suffered” from Liberal politics, 24 years after having found – and brought together – a Quebec “bruised” in the wake of the referendum on independence.
This promise to be a unifier, as well as his long track record in politics, is what several activists who came to hear him in Laval on Thursday quoted, and left impressed by his speech full of energy. “If anyone can bring the Conservative Party back together, it’s him. He is a unifier,” said Francine.
The promise to “gather”
Many provincial Liberal activists from Quebec were also in the room, which gathered nearly 500 people. One of them, who also voted for Justin Trudeau at the federal level, explained that she had since been disappointed by the Liberal federal prime minister. “I had a lot of hope when Justin Trudeau arrived. I gave him his chance. Where I completely landed, it is the expenses to no longer count even in times of economic prosperity, ”she said, without wanting to name herself.
Jean Charest was visibly galvanized to find Quebec political supporters. ” I come back to you. I’m coming back to the party where I grew up, “he told them, repeating once again that the conservative values have always been his: control of public finances, market economy, support for the family, rule of law, promotion of Canadian energy.
“It’s like the good old days!” observed a member of the assembly, applauding Jean Charest when he arrived.
There were also in the room many old ” Red Tories who had jumped ship after Brian Mulroney, but decided to join the Conservative Party with Jean Charest.
Divided opinions on Bill 21
Mr. Charest has, however, taken a few positions that break with those of the Conservative Party he now aspires to lead — on gun control (which he would not relax) and the Act respecting the secularism of the Quebec state ( on which he would intervene as federal prime minister, when it ends up before the Supreme Court).
On this last point, Mr. Charest’s change of course did not convince all the Conservatives.
Sam Barakat, a longtime Lebanese conservative, says he arrived in Canada with the intention of “integrating into society”. He rejects Jean Charest’s opposition to Bill 21. “We’ll tell him later, we’ll shape him,” he warned. “It is the Conservative Party that will impose its thoughts on Mr. Charest. Not the opposite. »
Others weren’t so offended. “You can’t leave a player of this quality on the bench,” said Bruno, a longtime Bloc Québécois sympathizer, who compared the former Quebec premier to hockey player Alexei Kovalev. Although he calls himself a great “nationalist” and a supporter of Bill 21, Bruno said he accepted that as federal prime minister, Mr. Charest would have to intervene in the Supreme Court. ” You do not have a choice. He defends a Canadian position. »
However, Jean Charest’s sense of duty to oppose Bill 21 in the Supreme Court would not apply to Bill 96 (Act respecting the official and common language of Quebec, French) even if it violates the rights fundamentals of Quebecers according to its detractors. “No, no, there is no question for us of challenging Bill 96,” Jean Charest told the press Thursday evening.