.ChantalHbert: Did Jean Charest see this threat coming to his Conservative leadership bid?
MONTREAL—If he is to succeed in his bid to become federal Conservative leader, Jean Charest needs to win big in Quebec.
Then there is the old blue Quebec network whose members — including former prime minister Brian Mulroney and his loyalists — still see Charest, notwithstanding his spell as Quebec Liberal leader and premier, as one of their own. A Mainstreet poll on voting intentions published last month placed the provincial Conservatives in second place behind the ruling Coalition Avenir Québec . A handful of other polls reported the party was in a statistical tie with the Quebec Liberals and Québec Solidaire.
The federalist party is in a close battle for second place with Québec Solidaire and the Conservatives in the popular vote, and lags 10 to 20 points behind the leading CAQ in voting intentions overall. This is a conservative reservoir that Charest has little hope of tapping for his leadership purposes.