John Ivison: Jean Charest sees a divided nation — and a divided Conservative party
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‘Our challenge is to speak to things that unite us, it isn’t to cultivate those differences,’ said Charest, following a hostile Conservative leadership debate
Conservative leadership candidate Jean Charest. May 6,2022. ERROL MCGIHON/Postmedia Article content
There’s not much in Jean Charest’s platform that would make Justin Trudeau wince, save perhaps experimentation with private health care and the cancellation of the consumer carbon tax.
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Does that make the former Quebec premier more Liberal than Conservative? Did he “govern like a Liberal,” as his Conservative leadership rival, Pierre Poilievre, alleged in the first candidates debate in Ottawa on Thursday?
It was a line of questioning that had one of the candidates on stage shaking his head. Scott Aitchison, the Ontario MP, said he was embarrassed by his party arguing over who is a “real” or a “fake” Conservative. “We’re never going to win another election if this is how we treat each other,” he said.
But the morning after an evening that escalated quickly, Charest was keen to differentiate himself from Trudeau, and to defend his fiscal record in Quebec.
In an interview with National Post, Charest said he entered the race because he sees a country more divided than ever. “I think Mr. Trudeau’s leadership has not been good for the country. Economically, we’re at sea. Mr. Trudeau’s government has been all about spending… We’re at a point where we have to deal with inflation and control spending. And I think we may have to look at the tax burden… We should look at reducing income taxes,” he said.
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Conservative leadership debate: Lewis, Poilievre, Charest trade shots on trucker convoy, abortion issues 
Who’s in the race? A peek into the CPC leadership candidates’ strategies Charest said he sees the short-term danger as being stagflation. “We’ve seen that movie before — low economic growth and high inflation. We need policies to promote economic growth and that’s where the Trudeau government is very weak.”
As far as his time as leader of the Quebec Liberal Party between 2003 and 2012 is concerned, he said he is proud of his fiscal record. “What I was faced with when I came in, relative to what I left in the end, was a world of difference. You know what the story was? Fiscal discipline,” he said. “When we left office, we left one of the best economies in the country in terms of jobs, the fiscal situation and a higher credit rating in Quebec than Ontario. There’s a reason for that — good management.”
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The facts bear him out. By 2012, the unemployment rate had fallen (to 7.7 per cent from 9.2 per cent when he took office); the economy was still in deficit but aggressive cuts to spending saw it on a trajectory to return to balance (program spending growth was reduced to 2.2 per cent between 2010 and 2013 from an average of 5.6 per cent between 2006 and 2009); and the province was given a AA2 credit rating by Moody’s.
Part of Charest’s problem is that his history as federalism’s standard-bearer in the 1995 referendum and in the 1998 provincial election, which blunted the push for another referendum, are irrelevant old war stories to a new generation of Conservatives. The battle lines are no longer drawn on the issue of national unity; now the struggle is about wrestling back “control” from the illegitimate “elites,” a tribe to which Charest undoubtedly belongs, on behalf of citizens who have lost trust in those leaders. In such a war, truth is subordinated by credulity.
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The average trucker has more integrity in his pinky finger than you had in your entire scandal-plagued Liberal cabinet
Pierre Poilievre
Charest seemed taken aback by the naked hostility shown by Poilievre, and parts of the crowd, who booed him at one point for accusing his rival of “supporting the illegal blockade.” Poilievre responded with perhaps the most belligerent comment I’ve ever seen in a debate between people claiming to represent the same party. “The average trucker has more integrity in his pinky finger than you had in your entire scandal-plagued Liberal cabinet,” he said.
Charest was clearly raging at the time — the two men did not shake hands — but brushed it off in our interview.
“Our challenge is to speak to things that unite us, it isn’t to cultivate those differences,” he said. “If you’re in politics, you have a choice. You can speak to the lowest common denominator and cultivate the dark side of human beings or alternatively, which I believe, you can try to reach for higher ground and put out a view and vision to try to speak to our better angels.”
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He said he is not trying to focus on the past “but the past says something about your character, who you are and what you believe.”
That character was called into question by Poilievre’s repeated reference to Charest’s employment by Huawei, the Chinese telecom firm. “How much did you get from Huawei?” he asked over and over, in broken-record mode.
It is undeniable that Charest is a former Quebec premier turned legal gun for hire, who worked on the extradition case of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, while Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were imprisoned in China, apparently in response to Meng’s arrest in Canada. It was not a good look.
But Charest responded by saying he is proud of his role working to free the two Michaels. “If you want evidence of that, ask the wife of Michael Kovrig,” he said.
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Poilievre scoffed: “Huawei paid you to free the two Michaels? Come on — do you have some swamp land to sell in Florida too?”
Yet, when I asked Kovrig’s former wife and the primary advocate for his release, Vina Nadjibulla, she said Charest was indeed in contact with her. “I am grateful for Mr. Charest’s efforts to find a resolution to Meng Wanzhou’s extradition case and for his solidarity for my advocacy of Michael’s release,” she said.
Charest is wary of saying exactly what he did but said it became obvious that if the extradition case could be resolved, “the state-sanctioned kidnapping” of the Michaels would end. “As much as I can tell you, I worked very closely with Vina, who I came to admire a great deal,” he said. “Huawei was welcomed to Canada by the Harper government — at the time it made sense but then the story changed, as it often does. When I was working for them, I was not doing anything contrary to the interest of this country. I’m very comfortable with what I did and I’m proud I was able to help in whatever way.”
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While other candidates, notably Poilievre, want to bury the status quo, Charest is more likely to praise it, claiming it needs to be tweaked rather than overturned.
Charest’s approach is not tinged by recent developments in the thinking of some elements of his party that blame the central bank and the World Economic Forum for draining “control” from Canada.
The idea is bizarre. I’m not into that
Jean Charest
Charest criticized all central banks for making the wrong call in not raising interest rates sooner to stifle inflation, but he does not believe the Bank of Canada should be reined in. “The idea is bizarre. I’m not into that,” he said.
Nor does he give credence to conspiracy theories about the WEF. In fact, it was at its annual meeting in Davos in 2006 that Charest kick-started the idea of a Canada-European Union trade agreement at a dinner with then EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson.
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He said talks on an investment agreement were going nowhere until he and Mandelson pushed for a broader deal, which culminated in the 2016 Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement. “I mentioned this in the debate — no big projects happen unless someone in a leadership position grabs onto it and makes it happen. Nothing,” he said.
Again though, CETA is ancient history and apparently discounted by most Conservatives, not least in the current caucus. I asked Charest how he plans to unite a parliamentary party in which Poilievre has four times as much support?
“If you know anything about the history of leadership races, you’ll know that caucus support is not a determining factor. Far from it. The membership will decide,” he said.
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Judging by the hostility directed towards him, a large section of the membership has already decided to swallow Poilievre’s line that Charest is a Liberal who campaigned against Stephen Harper, who supported the long-gun registry, raised taxes, brought in a carbon tax and worked for Huawei while the Chinese government detained two Canadians.
There is more context and proportionality to Charest’s career than that. Where, for example, do competence and experience fit into the equation?
But as James Madison, one of America’s founding fathers, noted, partisans inflamed with animosity “are much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than cooperate for their common good.”
You would have to go a very long way in this country to find a party more inflamed with animosity than today’s Conservative Party of Canada.
jivison@postmedia.comTwitter.com/IvisonJ
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