Jean Charest
John James "Jean" Charest is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012. Prior to that, he was a member of Parliament between 1984 and 1998. After holding several Cabinet posts from 1986 to 1990 and from 1991 to 1993, he was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998.
Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Charest worked as a lawyer before becoming an MP following the 1984 federal election. In 1986 he joined Brian Mulroney's government as a minister of state, but resigned from cabinet in 1990 after improperly speaking to a judge about an active court case. He returned to cabinet in 1991 as the minister of the environment. Charest ran to succeed Mulroney as party leader and prime minister in the PCs' 1993 leadership election, but placed second to Kim Campbell. Charest served as Campbell's industry minister and deputy prime minister. After the PCs' defeat in the 1993 election, Charest succeeded Campbell as party leader. He led the PCs to a minor recovery in the 1997 election.
Charest left federal politics in 1998 and was elected to lead the Quebec Liberal Party, the province's main federalist political party. He became premier of Quebec after the Liberals won the 2003 provincial election. He won two more elections until he lost the 2012 election to the sovereigntist Parti Quebecois and resigned as premier. After politics, Charest worked as a consultant, including for Huawei on the Meng Wanzhou case and for its 5G network plans in Canada, and joined McCarthy Tétrault LLP as a partner. Charest was a candidate in the 2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election, finishing a distant second to Pierre Poilievre.
Early life and education
Charest was born on June 24, 1958, in Sherbrooke, in Quebec's Eastern Townships. His parents are Rita, an Irish Quebecer, and Claude "Red" Charest, a French Canadian. He obtained a law degree from the Université de Sherbrooke and was admitted to the Barreau du Québec in 1981. He is married to Michèle Dionne, and they have three children, Amélie, Antoine, and Alexandra.Charest is fully bilingual in French and English. In the 1980 Quebec referendum, he failed to vote because he was getting married.
Federal politics (1984–1998)
Charest worked as a lawyer until he was elected Progressive Conservative member of the Parliament of Canada for the riding of Sherbrooke in the 1984 election. From 1984 to 1986, Charest served as Assistant Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole of the House of Commons.Minister of state (1986–1990)
In 1986, at age 28, Charest was appointed to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney as minister of state. He was the youngest cabinet minister in Canadian history.Charest was appointed minister of state in 1988, but had to resign from cabinet in 1990 after improperly speaking to a judge about a case regarding the Canadian Track and Field Association.
Role in Meech Lake Accord (1990–1991)
Charest was involved in the proposal of the Meech Lake Accord which would have given the province of Quebec the status of a "distinct society", extend provincial powers, and extensively change the constitution. In 1990, he led a commission that recommended a companion accord that would address the concerns of other provinces, assert that the distinct society clause would be subject to the Charter, and would feature greater protections for minority language rights in the provinces. The recommendations caused Mulroney's environment minister and Quebec lieutenant, Lucien Bouchard, to view the companion accord as a betrayal of Meech. Bouchard later resigned from Cabinet and founded the Bloc Québécois, a pro-sovereigntist party.Minister of the environment (1991–1993)
Charest returned to cabinet as minister of the environment in 1991. In that role, he led the Canadian delegation at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.1993 PC leadership bid
When Mulroney announced his retirement as PC leader and prime minister, Charest was a candidate for the leadership of the party at the 1993 Progressive Conservative leadership convention.Karlheinz Schreiber alleged he gave $30,000 in cash to Charest's campaign for the Tory leadership in 1993. However Charest himself says it was only $10,000 although federal leadership election rules permitted such cash donations. As of 2007, rules against such donations for provincial party leadership campaigns still do not exist in Québec.
Charest placed a strong second to Defence Minister Kim Campbell, who had held a large lead going into the convention. Charest served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, Science and Technology in Campbell's short-lived cabinet.
PC Party leader (1993–1998)
In the 1993 election, the PCs suffered the worst defeat for a governing party at the federal level. Only two of the party's 295 candidates were elected, Charest and Elsie Wayne. Charest himself was re-elected fairly handily in Sherbrooke, taking 56 per cent of the vote. As the only surviving member of what turned out to be the last PC Cabinet, Charest was appointed interim party leader and confirmed in the post in April 1995. Charest, therefore, became the first person of francophone descent to lead the Progressive Conservative Party.Charest participated in the 1994 class of the World Economic Forum's Global Leaders for Tomorrow program.
During the 1995 referendum on Quebec's sovereignty, Charest was vice-president of the "No" campaign.
In the 1997 federal election, Charest campaigned on securing national unity in Canada by recognizing Quebec as being a distinct society within Canada, along with the proposal of a "New Covenant" for Canadian confederation to be negotiated between the federal and provincial governments. Charest and the PCs benefited from rapidly rising in popularity amongst all language groups in Quebec, where voters were found to have preferred Charest over Gilles Duceppe, the leader of the Bloc Québécois. In the election, the Tories received 18.8 per cent of the popular vote and won 20 seats, mostly in Atlantic Canada. Although the party's seat count had recovered, Charest considered the result a disappointment. While the Tories finished only half a point behind Reform in terms of the popular vote, their support was too dispersed west of Quebec to translate into seats. They were also hampered by vote-splitting with Reform in rural central Ontario, a traditional Tory stronghold where Reform had made significant inroads.
Early provincial political career (1998–2003)
In April 1998, Charest gave in to considerable public and political pressure, especially among business circles, to leave federal politics and become leader of the Quebec Liberal Party. Charest was considered by many to be the best hope for the federalist QLP to defeat the sovereigntist Parti Québécois government.In the 1998 election, the Quebec Liberals received more votes than the PQ, but because the Liberal vote was concentrated in fewer ridings, the PQ won enough seats to form another majority government. Charest won his own riding of Sherbrooke with a majority of 907 votes.
In the April 2003 election, Charest led the Quebec Liberals to a majority, ending nine years of PQ rule. He declared he had a mandate to reform health care, cut taxes, reduce spending and reduce the size of government. Charest's Liberals won 76 seats, forming a majority government, and won his own riding of Sherbrooke with a majority of 2,597 votes.
Premier of Quebec (2003–2012)
Economic policy
Charest increased the Quebec sales tax thrice. In 2011, his government raised the rate from 7.5 per cent to 8.5 per cent before raising it to 9.5 per cent in 2012. The third and last hike came into effect in 2013, with the rate rising to 9.975 per cent.In October 2007, Quebec became the first province in Canada to implement a carbon tax. At the time it was implemented, the tax amounted to 0.8 cents per litre of gas and 0.9 cents per litre of diesel fuel.
File:Quebec Premier Jean Charest visits US Consulate.jpg|thumb|Charest with United States Consul General Peter O'Donohue in November 2010
Much of the fiscal policy of the Charest government was based upon the expectation that new revenues could be obtained from a resolution of the fiscal imbalance believed to exist between the federal and provincial governments. The Harper government was widely expected to address this issue through increased equalization payments, while falling short of Quebec's overall demands.
Charest was an early proponent of free trade with the European Union, which eventually manifested in the 2016 Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.