{"id":414234,"date":"2022-03-10T06:25:35","date_gmt":"2022-03-10T03:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/what-goes-around-comes-around-and-its-name-is-charest\/"},"modified":"2022-03-10T06:25:35","modified_gmt":"2022-03-10T03:25:35","slug":"what-goes-around-comes-around-and-its-name-is-charest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-goes-around-comes-around-and-its-name-is-charest\/","title":{"rendered":"#What goes around comes around and its name is Charest"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2ffb7c98204\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2ffb7c98204\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-goes-around-comes-around-and-its-name-is-charest\/#%E2%80%9CWhat_goes_around_comes_around_and_its_name_is_Charest%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;What goes around comes around and its name is Charest&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CWhat_goes_around_comes_around_and_its_name_is_Charest%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;What goes around comes around and its name is Charest&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                            Paul Wells: Nothing worse can h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>en to Jean Charest than has already happened to him, many times. The real danger is the looming fight between him and Pierre Poilievre.\n                        <\/div>\n<div>\n                                                                        In a world whose horizons have shrunk to the length of a TikTok video, Jean Charest\u2019s career is still measured in decades.<\/p>\n<p>His Parti Lib\u00e9ral du Qu\u00e9bec\u2014sorry, that\u2019s what it said on the buses\u2014lost the 2012 election in one of the softest landings a defeated party ever managed, only 33,000 votes and four seats behind the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois. In the decade since he\u2019s been a fixer, helper and deal-maker with what his law firm calls \u201c<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mccarthy.ca\/en\/people\/jean-charest\">a network of global relationships<\/a>.\u201d On Thursday in Calgary, of all places, he\u2019ll announce his candidacy for the leadership of the Conservative Party. Of Canada. His main rival <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pierrepoilievre\/status\/1416374627748696065\">mistrusts networks and globes<\/a>. This should be fun.<\/p>\n<p>Charest\u2019s 2012 defeat capped almost a decade as premier of Quebec, a province not conspicuously preoccupied with the concerns of Calgarians. That decade will be the object of much debate from here to September. For now I\u2019ll say only that personally I date the beginning of Montreal\u2019s economic comeback from about 2003, but that it wasn\u2019t always lovely.<\/p>\n<p>The decade before Charest\u2019s 2003 election win was the hardest in his career: he was forever in the spotlight but consistently outside the circles where real power is exercised. In 1993 the Progressive Conservative party he didn\u2019t yet even lead lost an election as badly as it\u2019s possible to lose, falling from 156 seats to two. Charest\u2019s curse, that year at least, was to be one of the two. He battled back, played a prominent role in the 1995 Quebec secession referendum, led the PCs to a slightly better result in 1997, and was bundled off to lead the Quebec Liberals in 1998, pretty much against his will. We\u2019re talking fingernail scratch marks down the length of the 417. There will naturally be debate this year about whether a longtime provincial Liberal can be a federal Conservative. In 1998 the questions ran all the other way.<\/p>\n<p>The decade before 1993 was our man\u2019s political <em>bildungsroman<\/em>. Charest rode to Ottawa as a 26-year-old on the Mulroney wave of 1984, talked his way into cabinet, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.macleans.ca\/article\/1990\/2\/5\/breach-of-the-code\">talked his way back out<\/a>, then finally back in. Sturdy <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> training in promise, regret and redemption.<\/p>\n<p>What can we learn from this reverse decade-at-a-time biography? Maybe this: Nothing worse can happen to John James \u201cJean\u201d Charest than has already happened, many times. He\u2019s lost big and small, he\u2019s chosen badly and got caught, he\u2019s had to swallow himself whole and apparently developed a taste for it. I never thought he\u2019d get back into politics. The best explanation for it is that politics never got out of him.<\/p>\n<p>Surely he\u2019s a long shot. Right at the top of my list of people least likely to win a federal Conservative leadership, it says \u201cLiberals.\u201d Second on the list is \u201cProgressive Conservatives.\u201d Charest\u2019s long record of success won\u2019t persuade many. A lot of it wasn\u2019t success, and much of the success was won in precincts today\u2019s Conservatives would rather avoid. He is catnip mostly to people who feel increasingly estranged from the modern Conservative Party. Here\u2019s Mike Coates <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hilltimes.com\/2022\/02\/28\/charest-wont-be-intimidated-by-spin-that-harpers-opposed-to-his-potential-leadership-bid-says-top-strategist-coates\/346714\">helping lead Charest\u2019s campaign<\/a>. Here\u2019s Coates l<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalpost.com\/opinion\/the-power-of-authenticity-i-took-on-tory-populist-mp-cheryl-gallant-and-got-squashed\">osing a riding nomination battle<\/a> to Cheryl Gallant. \u201cI sent Jean a note the other day,\u201d a senator told me. \u201cI said, \u2018Your country needs you but your party doesn\u2019t deserve you.&#8217;\u201d Senators who crack wise may not represent a sturdy base of support in the party.<\/p>\n<p>Charest will enter a crowded field: Leslyn Lewis, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ctvnews.ca\/politics\/independent-ontario-mpp-roman-baber-to-enter-conservative-leadership-race-1.5811846\">Roman Baber<\/a>, Patrick Brown, a few others. The acknowledged frontrunner is Pierre Poilievre, who is already <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalpost.com\/news\/politics\/poilievre-blasts-charests-record-of-raising-taxes-compares-him-to-trudeau\">running against Charest and Justin Trudeau<\/a> as though they were working together in a coalition government. His chosen angle of attack \u2014 that Charest increased taxes \u2014 is surprising, given that he could have said Charest is a Liberal or that he <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/politics\/article-charest-advising-huawei-in-meng-wanzhou-case-and-on-5g-networks\/\">worked for Huawei<\/a>. But Poilievre doesn\u2019t often say the most outrageous thing he can think of saying. He says the thing <em>next to<\/em> the most outrageous thing, in such a way that the person thinking the most outrageous thing will think Pierre Poilievre is on his side.<\/p>\n<p>Charest and Poilievre will ask Conservatives two different questions. Charest\u2019s is: Are you tired of losing yet? Poilievre\u2019s is: Are you tired of leaders who will say anything to win, and then don\u2019t even win? Just about everyone I know who thinks Conservatism has gone downhill since Joe Clark retired is rooting for Charest. The ones who wish Andrew Scheer and Erin O\u2019Toole hadn\u2019t bothered to pretend that they cared about climate change are with Poilievre. I feel comfortable saying that among current Conservative members, the we-miss-Joe crowd are outnumbered by the climate-change-is-Davos-<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a>ism crowd.<\/p>\n<p>The confrontation between the two men is a moment of considerable danger for a party that did not exist, in its current form, before 2003. Its only winning leader was Stephen Harper. Harper worked hard, for little credit, to ensure Progressive Conservatives like Peter MacKay and Lawrence Cannon could feel reasonably comfortable in his party. The basis of Poilievre\u2019s appeal is that he doesn\u2019t work hard to make anyone feel comfortable. Progressive Conservatives will be sensitive to insult. And wondering whether they need to put up with it. A party so recently put together isn\u2019t sure of staying together.<\/p>\n<div class=\"under-article-widget-nl\">\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-title\">Looking for more?<\/p>\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-description\">Get the best of <em>Maclean&#8217;s<\/em> sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for daily stories and analysis.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/politics\/ottawa\/what-goes-around-comes-around-and-its-name-is-charest\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;What goes around comes around and its name is Charest&#8221; Paul Wells: Nothing worse can happen to Jean Charest than has already happened to him, many times. The real danger is the looming fight between him and Pierre Poilievre. In a world whose horizons have shrunk to the length of a TikTok video, Jean Charest\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":414235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/CP151896715-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[126605,67806,125730,81184],"class_list":["post-414234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-conservative-leadership-2022","tag-editors-picks","tag-jean-charest","tag-pierre-poilievre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}