Charest and beautiful red ailments

If he announces his candidacy for Erin O’Toole’s legacy, Jean-Charles will embarrass many liberals.

First, in Quebec, PLQ leader Dominic Angled. She wants to break away from the liberal past … now it looks amazing again.

We recall the highlights of the Charest years, especially the dubious articles: broken promises in health; Appointment of judges with effect; Hidden treasures; Mature Survey; Charbonneau Commission; Student spring.

Dominic Angled has to answer questions on these matters. I will try to adhere to a kind of neutrality as I said in his entourage yesterday.

“Finished fan”

The ready-made sentence reads: “We are not Franకోois Legalt! We do not interfere in the business of the Conservative Party. ⁇

The trouble is, they can not stop praising the former colleagues of Charles, who are still elected along with Anglade, to whom they owe so much and to whom they are still so much loved.

I’m talking to Christine Saint-Pierre about it yesterday, and she describes herself as a “complete fan” of the former chef.

Their friendship goes back to when they were a Saint-Pierre reporter in Ottawa and played for the Charest Progressive Conservative Party. Charrest recruited her in 2007 and Saint-Pierre became her Minister of Culture, among other things.

Naturally, the Acadian member was full of praise for him: “the level of a leader”, “very comfortable in international relations”, “networks are everywhere”. And here, he is a progressive conservative who knows the “unknown country”, “from coast to coast”, the environment.

She said she had not spoken to him recently, but asked “Would you recommend him dive?” She answers “yes” without hesitation.

In the PLQ Caucasus, she’s not alone, that’s for sure. If I’m not mistaken, at least eight other current Liberal MPs are closely associated with the Charest era: Pierre Arcand, Francine Charbonno, Liz Theriolt, Mary Goudreld, Nicole Maynard, Philomena Rotrotti, Mark Tangwe, Isabelle Melloncon.

We know how much the party foundation loves the former leader! At the PLQ’s 150th Congress, in 2017, the most lively Charest (“he loses people, groups, political speeches”, Saint-Pierre believed yesterday) spoke in front of flying militants! The eclipse took place for Philip Coulard.

Thus Dominic Anglade faces a real dilemma: it is impossible to over-criticize or praise the former chef. When she was CAQ president and condemned the “smells of corruption” in the PLQ, she also wished we could not remember the last year of Charest who came to power in 2012!

Even in Ottawa

Charest’s candidacy for many federal Liberals is also confusing in Ottawa.

At least one elected official, Emmanuel Duborg, was a former official elected from the Charest era and a fan of the former prime minister. In 2010, after an earthquake in Haiti, Charest appointed him coordinator of government action in Haiti.

I was told that many other members of the liberal political establishment in Ottawa were former members of the PLQ and great admirers of Charest and even nostalgic for this age: “They say to themselves: ‘What will we do if he goes there?’ “, Tells me the former PLC.

Good question.