JEAN CHAREST

POLICY MAN

Former Quebec premier Jean Charest entered the race claiming he could “make this party win” but the reality has been proving a bit more challenging. Having been out of politics for nearly a decade, he's had to quickly adapt to the realities of being a politician in 2022.

But some things don't change. A genuine connection, a good handshake: Charest hasn't been attracting crowds, but he takes the time to meet and talk to each and every person at his events. He has a fantastic memory for names and facts about people, which can be disarming at times.

Melanie Paradis went to her local Boston Pizza with her baby to meet Charest for the first time. He stunned her by asking: “Where's my money?”

Paradis, who used to be a close adviser to former leader Erin O'toole, had been on social media and in the press to complain about the fake donation pledge of $120 that had been made under her name. It is believed that a “troll” used an old Conservative membership data list to make the Charest campaign waste its time.

Charest, of course, was joking about the money. “He had never met me before, but he had seen me on TV and had remembered it,” she told the National Post.

In the public eye, Charest is leading a more “media savvy campaign” to relay his messages, “because he doesn't have the infrastructure to very quickly and very effectively convey his message to members compared to Pierre Poilievre,” said Rudy Husny, who was a Conservative leadership candidate in 2020.

In recent days, he has given exclusive interviews to mainstream media to lay out his policies for the health sector, the environment and the natural resources sector.

“Jean Charest is trying to put as much content or policy as possible to generate news. But also, I think that he's doing it to prepare himself for the debates so that he's able to actually highlight policies that he already announced,” added Husny.

“We wanted to go into the debates with something to say,” said Charest national co-chair Tasha Kheiriddin. “We don't believe that debates should be just an occasion to clash with or criticize your opponent.”

Kheiriddin said every time the Charest team puts out new policy ideas and attracts attention from the media, membership sales increase. “So our strategy has become very policy-focused, which as somebody who believes in policy, I greatly appreciate.”