The number of times someone has mentioned the name Jean Charest to me in the past decade, even if just in passing, is close to zero.
The only time the former federal Progressive Conservative leader and Quebec Liberal Premier has really come up in conversation has been in the context of: “Omg, did you hear Charest was consulting for Huawei to help them deal with the Meng Wanzhou issue?!” (Yes, he really did.)
A group of longtime Conservatives is advocating for leadership hopefuls to develop credible climate plans at the same time as cancelling the federal carbon price has emerged as one of the first promises out of the race.
Ken Boessenkool, executive director of the recently launched Conservatives for Clean Growth, said Friday it doesn’t view a consumer carbon price as the make-or-break feature of a good plan to tackle climate change.
Scrap the carbon tax? Where have I heard that before?
I know many like Poilievre, I do too but I’m not sure he can turn the CPC into a conservative party.
A spokesman for Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown says he will soon make a decision about whether to enter the Conservative party leadership race.
Gary Collins says Brown is pleased with the rules the party’s leadership election organizing committee has released so far on how long candidates will have to sign up members.
The party says candidates will have until April 19 to enter the race and until June 3 to submit membership applications.
The Conservatives will elect their next leader by Sept. 10, the party announced Wednesday after adopting the rules for its third leadership race in six years.
Prospective candidates will have until Apr. 19 to send in their applications, at a cost of $200,000, along with a $100,000 deposit to ensure compliance with the rules. The deposit will be refunded after the contest is over.
I can’t believe they’re pushing this guy.
Jean Charest says he’s not afraid of a tough battle for Conservative leadership
Former Quebec premier Jean Charest says that if he became the leader of the Conservative Party and prime minister, he would bring fiscal discipline to federal spending, mend regional divisions and restore Canada’s brand on the international stage.
Mr. Charest said he has a wealth of experience as a federal cabinet minister under former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney and as Quebec premier from 2003 until 2012.
He met privately Tuesday evening with dozens of Conservative MPs and senators who wanted to hear his vision for the country.
Can’t you just feel the excitement?
More than 20 years separate them. One has a large social media presence, the other has none. One has been an MP for seven consecutive terms, the other has extensive experience as a former premier and in the private sector. One is adored by the current membership of the party. The other is now seen as an outsider from a party he left more than two decades ago.
Charest? News so old I had to look him up on a microfiche.
I like Poilievre, but can he be more than just a great wingman?
And will he fix CPC policy to stop the bleed to the PPC?
I don’t think so.
Supporters of Pierre Poilievre’s bid for the Conservative Party leadership are calling on the party’s caucus and one member of its Leadership Election Organizing Committee (LEOC) to hold the race quickly.
Conservative New Brunswick MP John Williamson sent an email Wednesday to all Conservative MPs calling for a vote no later than July 1.
“It is my belief we should have a leader in place for the start of summer, which for me is ahead of Canada Day,” Williamson says in the email, obtained by CBC News. “That’s four months from now, giving the leadership contenders ample time to campaign and sign up new members.
Canada’s political world is abuzz about the possibility that Jean Charest might run for the Conservative party leadership. Some Tories are so excited, they penned a breathless open letter, in which they claim the former deputy prime minister and premier of Quebec is “tailor-made to lead the Canadian people out of the crisis we are currently going through with COVID-19.”
Eight Conservatives from Eastern Canada are appealing to former Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s “sense of duty” in running for the Conservative Party of Canada leadership, with hopes of unifying Canadians and restoring Canada’s economy and reputation worldwide.
Do they honestly think this will pass muster?
Conservative Party politics in Canada have been generally more tranquil than Republican Party politics in the U.S. Though Conservatives have remained out of office since late 2015, the party won the popular vote in successive elections at the national level. Center-right parties, from Quebec’s Coalition Avenir Québec to Alberta’s United Conservative Party, presently govern eight of ten provincial governments across the country.
After publicly supporting the anti-vaccine mandate activists protesting in Ottawa in recent weeks, interim Conservative leader Candice Bergen said Thursday it’s time for the convoy and other protesters blocking two major border crossings to end their demonstrations and go home.
Bergen, who has called the convoy a “passionate, patriotic and peaceful” group of Canadians concerned about freedom at a time of COVID restrictions, said the protesters have made their point to parliamentarians and the Conservative Party will take up their fight in the House of Commons instead.
Should the Conservative Party proceed to a quick coronation of Pierre Poilievre or hold an actual leadership race?
Conservative strategists and commentators who spoke to the National Post are torn between holding a quick leadership race and gearing up for the next election, or opting for a longer contest with the outcome being harder to predict.
Likeable but will anything really change?
I’m running for Prime Minister to give you back control of your life.
Sign up now to help me replace Trudeau & restore freedom:https://t.co/NWfP7cCPiM pic.twitter.com/ox5WzZmMkj
— pierrepoilievre (@PierrePoilievre) February 6, 2022
Race for the next Conservative leader begins as Poilievre announces his bid
He can handle the MSM.
h/t SDMATT & RM
For years now, since the defeat of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Canada’s ivory tower commentariat has consistently pushed for the Conservative party to be a squishy, unrecognizable, amorphous entity that no one can distinguish from the liberal elite status quo.
h/t SDMAT
Conservatives need to move quickly to replace Erin O’Toole, party president says
Federal Conservatives say they have to move quickly to find a permanent replacement for Erin O’Toole, because the minority government means Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could trigger an early election.
Conservative Party president Robert Batherson said Thursday that an organizing committee, which has not yet been appointed, will make a decision on when to hold an election for a new party leader. The same committee, he said, will determine other rules for the leadership race.
But he noted there are time pressures facing the Official Opposition party. “We know from Justin Trudeau calling an election in a pandemic last year that he can call an election at any time,” Mr. Batherson said.
Within what some claim to be a post-modern Canada, what is unspoken in media is often critical information omitted for a purpose.
The degree to which our media have thrown now-defunct Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole in a proverbial trash can is a good example. The vehemence of hatred the press has directed toward this man speaks volumes regarding our “woke” Canadian society.
The true message is that legacy media are being paid to destroy the Conservatives as competition to Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. In this regard, one can conclude that whomever the party chooses as successor to Mr. O’Toole, the fate of Erin O’Toole may await them.capforcanada.com/do-or-die-select-a-conservative-party-leader-media-cannot-tear-to-shreds
