Leadership is about fighting and showing up, not running away, the former Progressive Conservative leader and ex-Quebec Premier said in his closing remarks.
From the start of the debate, Jean Charest accused his opponent of disrespecting activists. For a candidate in a leadership race, refusing to participate in a debate is like a fish refusing to swim in the ocean, he illustrated.
“Anyone who wants to unite the party must be present. You need to talk to the members. They cannot be treated with contempt. »
— A quote from Jean Charest, candidate for leadership of Canada’s Conservative Party
In the absence of Pierre Poilievre, who was campaigning in Saskatchewan, and Leslyn Lewis, who also chose to avoid the exercise, Jean Charest debated Wednesday night in a tiny Ottawa studio with just two other candidates, Scott Aitchison and Roman Baber.
The event was divided into two 45-minute sessions, one in English and the other in French. This second part of the debate allowed Jean Charest to demonstrate that he was the only truly bilingual candidate at the table, while his opponents at his side spoke French with difficulty.
Just hours before the debate, Jean Charest had criticized Pierre Poilievre for not being a “real leader” for his refusal to attend the last official leadership debate.
Photo: The Canadian Press/Justin Tang
In addition to Pierre Poilievre’s notable absence, it was the party’s future and its unity the day after the election of the future leader that drew much attention on Wednesday night.
Despite repeated remarks from Scott Aitchison – and questions from reporters during the press conference that followed – Jean Charest again refused to say whether he would wear the CPC colors in the next election if a candidate other than himself won the leadership race.
Mr. Charest maintains the vagueness of his intentions as a new group emerges, dubbed the Center Ice Conservatives — a movement of moderate conservatives to which his campaign co-president Tasha Kheiriddin belongs.
Towards the end of the race, other Jean Charest supporters are also active behind the scenes and in public to persuade the members not to vote for Pierre Poilievre.
This is particularly the case for Portneuf-Jacques-Cartier MP Joël Godin, who is already considering his political future if his Carleton counterpart is elected party leader. In particular, he fears Prime Minister Pierre Poilievre will go ahead with his plan to sack Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem.
“I don’t feel comfortable and don’t understand how we can support someone who has a vision to fire the governor of the Bank of Canada and base our country’s economy on the Bitcoin system,” he told Radio-Canada on Wednesday. I’m not comfortable with that and will certainly think about it.
Senator Jean-Guy Dagenais also wrote to members to urge them not to vote for Pierre Poilievre. The Conservative Party of Canada, he writes, is gambling with the current leadership race for nothing less than its future on the Canadian political spectrum.
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The identity of the next CCP leader will be revealed September 10 at the Shaw Center in Ottawa. Around 675,000 members were given the right to vote in the party-supervised primary election. 150,000 votes have been received so far.
Officially, six candidates were able to submit their candidacy to succeed Erin O’Toole, who was expelled from the party in February. Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown was disqualified from endorsing Jean Charest last month, but his name still appears on the ballots.