Juno News - Jean Charest says he can unite Conservatives and win a national majority

00:00:00.000 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:00:08.520 And joining me now is the former leader of the federal PC party and also the premier of Quebec

00:00:14.380 and now conservative leadership candidate Jean Charest. Jean, thank you for coming on today.

00:00:19.560 Great to speak with you.

00:00:20.780 Thank you, Andrew. I'm delighted to join you at True North.

00:00:24.060 So this is, I think, a big question for a lot of people.

00:00:26.880 You've obviously served in politics before, federally and provincially, going back several decades at this point.

00:00:33.020 Why now? Why is this the moment that you want to come back and to this position, leading the federal Conservatives?

00:00:39.000 Boils down to one word, Canada, the future of Canada.

00:00:42.600 My whole life, Andrew, you know, the common theme of my whole, not just my political life, but my life has been the ideal of Canada.

00:00:50.440 I'm among those who think that we won the lottery of citizenship in the world to be and live in this country.

00:00:56.120 And I see a country that's way below its potential, but I also see a Conservative Party that I know and that I grew up with, by the way.

00:01:06.540 I mean, that's the party that I grew up in.

00:01:08.460 My father, my grandfather, my great-grandfather are Conservatives.

00:01:12.380 And I see a political party that isn't living up to what Canadians want as a national political party, that needs to get itself together on preparing itself for the next election campaign to unite itself.

00:01:28.800 And I have that firm belief that I'm the person who can do that, who can make that happen, given the experience I have.

00:01:36.680 So that's why I'm running.

00:01:38.280 And there's a number of issues I care about, you know, Conservative values I espoused all my life, wherever I was, including in Quebec politics.

00:01:45.840 So I'm looking at this race, and what I'm picking up, by the way, Andrew, on the street and talking to members, a lot of the comment is about we need an adult in the room, is a lot of what I'm hearing.

00:01:58.660 And a lot of the membership of the party are tired of losing, and they want us to get organized.

00:02:05.560 They want a leader who's going to bring us together under one tent, focus on the campaign, and win a majority national government.

00:02:13.840 And my ambition, Andrew, I don't have a small ambition here.

00:02:16.940 This is a government in which Alberta and Saskatchewan are at the table, not outside looking in, but shaping policy, and where Quebec is at the table.

00:02:24.780 And where we, and this is very much a conservative, by the way, value, our view of federalism, or respecting jurisdictions.

00:02:34.020 And I'm sorry if I'm going a bit long, Andrew, but I do want to add one thing.

00:02:37.100 One thing I think I would bring to this is the experience I have at both levels, and the ability in Ottawa, it would be a breath of fresh air, to have a prime minister who actually knows how the federal system works, and how to make it work, to get things done, big things done.

00:02:54.020 So that's part of what I would bring to all of this.

00:02:57.880 The federal party that you led, the Progressive Conservative Party, no longer exists, at least not in that form.

00:03:04.140 The provincial party you led, the Quebec Liberal Party, is a party that a lot of conservatives didn't feel, ultimately like they had a home in,

00:03:10.840 which is why we've seen Quebec politics welcome new parties into the fold in the time since you were there.

00:03:16.360 What makes you think that you have a place in the Conservative Party of Canada in its current form, and that the members of that party will find that you resonate with their values for the party and for the country?

00:03:28.560 You know, political parties are living institutions.

00:03:32.280 They're not static.

00:03:33.120 They don't just, in time, sort of be what they are, and then they don't.

00:03:39.720 And look at the story of the Conservative Party, from the Conservative Liberals under Sir John A. McDonnell way back when, I mean, all the way to the Progressive Conservative Party, Reform Party, the Alliance, the merger, and the Conservative Party where it is today.

00:03:56.220 So the political parties, and their leaders, by the way, leave a mark on the party, and when you take over the leadership of the party, Andrew, you assume that past, and your job as a leader is to be a fiduciary of the party.

00:04:11.480 You don't own the party, and to grow it, and to make it a force based on the values that you share.

00:04:18.280 Same is true for the Liberal Party of Quebec.

00:04:20.100 When I went to Quebec, I mean, when you hear this ridiculous argument that Charest would be a Liberal, I mean, come on.

00:04:26.020 I mean, you'd have to, you'd have to have been living on planet Mars, not to know that I was in, you know, press to go to Quebec to lead the Federalist forces in Quebec to fight the Separatists.

00:04:38.520 And the Liberal Party of Quebec was the Coalition of Federalists.

00:04:41.620 Still is, in good part, by the way.

00:04:43.860 So that's it.

00:04:44.440 Much like I'm in British Columbia, I'm talking to you from British Columbia, much as the Liberal Party in British Columbia as a coalition.

00:04:50.660 So that's where the parties are at.

00:04:52.240 And I know that.

00:04:53.100 For example, I have a lot of respect for what Stephen Harper has accomplished as Prime Minister.

00:04:58.360 You know, he ran a pretty solid economy.

00:05:00.460 This isn't a detail.

00:05:02.020 It's Mr. Trudeau was able to spend as much as he spent.

00:05:05.260 It's because there was a government before him who gave him all this maneuvering room to actually be able to go out there and spend a load of money.

00:05:14.200 And now, though, we're coming out of COVID.

00:05:17.060 Now we need a government that's going to bring some order to all of this, focus on economic growth, and focus on the things that Conservatives really believe in.

00:05:25.260 You did, when you were Premier of Quebec and Stephen Harper was Prime Minister, I know you did butt heads on certain things.

00:05:31.400 So just let me ask you, have you voted in the last three elections for the Federal Conservative Party?

00:05:38.160 Yes, I have.

00:05:39.200 I have.

00:05:39.540 I voted for the Conservative Party.

00:05:41.400 It's my home.

00:05:42.540 That's where I'm at.

00:05:44.020 And, you know, Mr. Harper and I, again, I have a lot of respect for him, but there are times where you disagree.

00:05:48.160 I mean, that's fine.

00:05:49.120 That's okay.

00:05:50.100 You know, when I reduced taxes after a federal transfer in 2007, Mr. Harper and the government of the day didn't agree with me, which I found to be highly unusual at the time.

00:06:00.320 I mean, actually, I mean, really?

00:06:01.680 I thought, you know, Conservative government doesn't agree with Charest reducing taxes, which is what I did, and there were other instances where we disagreed.

00:06:12.280 In 2005, 06, when he was running, I gave an interview that gave him a big boost in that campaign about the federalism that he was proposing, saying as Premier of Quebec that this is something that I thought was good.

00:06:24.140 But I wasn't trying to put my finger on the scale for – I was just saying what I thought was good for Quebec and good for the country.

00:06:32.900 And I never – I'm among those that never thought that being a Premier of a province means you're contradicting the interest of the country.

00:06:40.720 I mean, it's – this thinking that you can either be one or the other, frankly, is pretty childish.

00:06:45.840 The real challenge is to how do we align our interests together to do things together.

00:06:49.780 There are three things here, and I'm trying not to make this seem like a barrage, but three consistent concerns that a lot of Conservatives have raised about your candidacy that I want to let you explain in your own words.

00:07:02.440 And one of them is your connection to Huawei, and I know you commented on this at your launch in Calgary, and the other is your previous support for the long gun registry, and the third is your support for the carbon tax.

00:07:14.800 So I want to give you time to do this, but let's start on Huawei, because the Conservative Party of Canada has taken, generally speaking, a very firm position against the Chinese government and against Huawei, and was very critical of a lot of what China did throughout that.

00:07:29.840 So how do you defend your record in the private sector advising Huawei with what the Conservative Party and I think a lot of Canadians expect from a relationship with China and companies connected to the Chinese state?

00:07:42.520 Well, Andrew, and that's an important question, and by the way, I'm very proud of the extensive private sector experience I have, and you know, in the last 10 years, I've worked a lot in the private sector with very interesting files at the highest level.

00:07:58.480 And you said you were proud of your work with Huawei specifically, did you not?

00:08:02.020 I want to, I want to answer very directly your question. I worked, I did not represent the Communist Party of China. I worked so that we could secure an agreement that would bring the two Michaels home. That's what I did. I worked with Veena Najibullah, who is the spouse of Michael Kovrig.

00:08:20.020 We talked over the phone several times so that we could do everything possible to square away this issue and bring the Michaels home. And I'm very proud of that. I'm not, I'm not apologizing for that, not a minute, because I think that's what you do when, when you have this kind of responsibility and an opportunity to be helpful to your country.

00:08:42.020 So that's what I did. So, and, and then on, I've never shied away. And, you know, I, I was on a panel after this was before the leadership race in Montreal.

00:08:51.020 And I said very clearly what I thought of what this situation was with the Michaels. It was a government sanctioned kidnapping. That's what it was. Yeah. There's no other way to describe it.

00:09:03.020 And I'm, I never shied away. And this is before you and I talked in this leadership race come up. So I've on the, on the issue of China, I've never shied away from saying what I think and what I believe.

00:09:14.500 And that's the way I'm going to be as the leader of the party and as prime minister of the country.

00:09:19.180 And let's turn to the long gun registry if we can. This is again, even the liberals have, have not proposed to reintroduce the long gun registry, given the colossal failure of a policy and the costliness of, of that as a policy.

00:09:30.840 As Quebec premier, you supported it. What's your position on firearms?

00:09:34.980 Well, I was in the house of commons when this long gun registry was being proposed and it was going to go to New Brunswick.

00:09:41.180 And I remember very well us saying to the government at the time, you are going to just bust the budget on this.

00:09:48.180 It is going to cost a fortune and it's not going to be as efficient as you actually think it is, or you're purporting that it's going to be.

00:09:53.800 That was in 1997 when I led the party in the election campaign in 97.

00:09:58.140 Now it ended up being that when, excuse me, when the Harper government decides to dismantle it, the police forces in Quebec say to us and to my government, if they're going to dismantle it, we would like to recuperate that information and put it into our, our system.

00:10:15.320 And that was the position we took. We thought that made sense. It's there anyway. Money's been spent.

00:10:20.960 So if it's spent and the information is there, then we should transfer it over and it'll be done.

00:10:26.000 Government of the day didn't agree with that. Well, that's fine. But that was the position we took.

00:10:30.460 And where is your stance now? Because firearms owners have been very critical of restrictions that Justin Trudeau has put in place.

00:10:39.100 In the last election, the Conservatives had proposed to roll that back. Is that something you would do as Conservative leader as well?

00:10:46.140 And, you know, are you surprised, Andrew? Is there anyone who is, you know, listening in or surprised that the Liberals keep taunting the Conservatives on this issue?

00:10:55.300 I mean, this is the oldest movie in the world, really. They keep coming back to it.

00:11:00.640 Now, what I see in both Toronto and Montreal in particular is a real issue of handguns and illegal entry of land guns.

00:11:09.380 I'll tell you something I think the Conservatives should do is invest resources and money at the border to be able to stop the fact that handguns are coming in illegally to the country.

00:11:18.980 If we want to deal with the real issue, that's where the problem is.

00:11:21.460 It isn't up in northern Saskatchewan that we're having a problem with this.

00:11:25.900 That's where the real, real issue is. And that's where I would put the efforts of the Conservative government.

00:11:31.280 Would you would you roll back any of the restrictions that Justin Trudeau has put in?

00:11:36.020 Well, we wouldn't be putting in any new restrictions for sure.

00:11:39.400 And we would look seriously at what has been put in to make sure it makes common sense for Canadians who live in rural areas and who have nothing to do with the violence or the, you know, the sad stories we see in urban areas.

00:11:50.500 So let's, let's just use common sense, but it speaks, as you know, Andrew speaks to a real divide.

00:11:55.720 This was the case in 1997 between rural Canada and urban Canada.

00:11:59.540 Why is it that we can't make a difference?

00:12:01.180 We can very well make a difference, distinguish between two very different realities and just apply common sense policies that allow us to, to, to apply to, you know, whatever it is that needs to be done to restrict violence.

00:12:15.880 And allow hunters to, uh, and, and farmers to go out and use their, their guns as they do safely.

00:12:22.700 And let's talk if we can, uh, about carbon taxes, obviously Quebec under your leadership had a cap and trade program.

00:12:30.320 The conservatives last time ran on a very unique model of a, of a carbon price and ultimately weren't successful on this.

00:12:38.040 I I've heard you talk about the importance of finding solutions to environmental challenges that aren't rooted in taxation.

00:12:44.720 You've talked even in our chat now about being someone who supports lower taxes.

00:12:49.020 So how do you propose to tackle environmental issues that you have identified are important without a carbon tax, if that is your approach?

00:12:55.960 And, and if it's not, what form of a, of a carbon tax would you proceed with?

00:13:00.240 Andrew, I have a long history, as you know, dealing with this.

00:13:03.020 I was in Rio in 1992 when Canada signed the climate change convention.

00:13:06.660 And, uh, when we signed it, we didn't sign it as, and no one thought back then it was to be used as a club to hit the oil and gas industry over the head with.

00:13:16.580 In fact, when I did that, and I'll tell you one fundamental difference on all these policies is if you want to get anything done.

00:13:22.340 When I did that in Rio, Jack, uh, McLeod of Sunco of, uh, no shell was with us.

00:13:28.500 And you cannot make up these policies if you take the oil and gas industry and they're outside of the room or the provinces, and that's what the liberals do.

00:13:38.340 That's what Mr. Trudeau has done because you can't operationalize the policies.

00:13:42.960 You can't actually implement them and make them commonsensical if you, they're outside of the room.

00:13:49.440 That's the difference between the conservatives and the liberals.

00:13:51.460 We did, conservatives did the Montreal Protocol on CFCs, HCFCs, the most successful environmental treaty in the world.

00:13:59.200 We did the Clean Air Act on SO2 emissions in 1990, very successful.

00:14:03.920 So conservatives do things, liberals talk.

00:14:06.500 I've seen that all my life.

00:14:08.060 And on this issue in particular, we need to look at the, all of these solutions.

00:14:12.500 That includes carbon capture and sequestration.

00:14:15.320 It includes hydrogen green and blue.

00:14:19.080 It includes small modular reactors.

00:14:21.120 Oh, the list with biofuels.

00:14:23.220 And if we're going to put a price on carbon, and I think that's needs to be looked at as part of the solutions.

00:14:29.060 And that's what I did in Quebec.

00:14:30.220 We did a carbon trading system with California that's working fairly well.

00:14:33.940 It has to be provincially driven.

00:14:35.940 The provinces have to be at the table.

00:14:38.020 It cannot be a format or a design that discriminates against rural Canadians who are going to pay overwhelmingly for this.

00:14:46.540 I mean, it's going to hit them and it can't be a wealth transfer tax.

00:14:49.900 So these are the things.

00:14:51.800 So during this campaign, my challenge will be to put forward a format that works.

00:14:57.340 Now, conservatives, this is a challenge, Andrew, as you know.

00:15:00.400 This is going to be a test for us.

00:15:02.660 We have to be able, as a party, to get something that makes sense, resonates, that Canadians understand that it's fairly simple and straightforward.

00:15:11.480 And if we meet that test, we're going to form a national government.

00:15:17.140 Last question to you, Jean.

00:15:19.920 Conservatives, three leaders in a row, three elections, have not been able to unseat Justin Trudeau, or I guess the last two, unseat Justin Trudeau.

00:15:27.920 So why are you the guy that can turn that around?

00:15:31.140 I've been tested.

00:15:32.240 I've ran election campaigns.

00:15:34.200 I won three consecutive governments when I was in Quebec in a very tough environment, by the way.

00:15:38.520 And I will have Andrew Lawton running for me in the next election campaign.

00:15:43.380 So I see you're not reacting, Andrew.

00:15:46.120 You're not saying no.

00:15:47.360 You couldn't drag me to run again, but.

00:15:49.400 I know how to win.

00:15:53.080 And isn't that the issue also in the campaign?

00:15:55.140 I mean, there's a lot of them.

00:15:56.360 We've had a great chat about them.

00:15:58.660 But at the end of the day, this party wants to have a national party able to win in every part of the country.

00:16:06.780 I want to put Alberta and Saskatchewan at the table. 0.52

00:16:09.000 I've seen it, Andrew.

00:16:10.340 I was there when that was the case, and we got big things done.

00:16:14.300 And I fear for the future of my country when it's so balconized the way it is now.

00:16:18.540 It doesn't have to be that way.

00:16:21.280 And it falls to us, the Conservatives, to change that.

00:16:25.000 There is no fatality in life.

00:16:27.280 There's no fatality in politics.

00:16:29.220 We decide.

00:16:30.420 And that's what I'm going to do with this party.

00:16:33.080 Former Quebec Premier and former federal PC leader, Jean Charest.

00:16:36.600 Jean, thank you so much for your time.

00:16:37.920 Really appreciate it.

00:16:38.900 Thank you very much, Andrew.

00:16:40.220 Hope to talk to you soon.

00:16:41.560 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:16:43.480 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - March 14, 2022

Jean Charest says he can unite Conservatives and win a national majority

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