[Newsbot]

Title: 'Canada needs you, Mr. Charest': An open letter to an undeclared Conservative leadership candidate | National Post
Category: Political
Posted By: Scape
Date: 2022-02-22 12:29:02
Canadian

[DrCaleb]

Actually, this isn't the worst idea I've seen lately.

[llama66]

Nope, Jean Charest isn't a frothing ideologue so far as I remember. He was pretty in the middle as I recall.

[raydan]

So the Conservative party is reduced to raising the dead in their efforts to find someone to lead them to victory.

[housewife]

It would seem so

[DrCaleb]

Joe Clark is also available.

[herbie]

Their alt-right wouldn't stand for Charest.

[DrCaleb]

Perfect reason then, the alt-right can go with the PPC and cast a vote for obscurity.

[Thanos]

The federal party needs to be broken apart in order to prevent the moderates, in the short term, from being exterminated by the radicals. Go into the next election with two distinct conservative brands, one moderate/progressive and the other one Trumpists. See what happens then, which side takes more votes and which type of candidate gets more votes. Yeah, the election is lost to the Liberals again but at least the dividing line is set. And the two warring factions no longer have to sit with each other.

I'd wager that everywhere except for AB/Sask the moderate conservatives overwhelmingly clobber the radicals. No matter their goddamn illusions to the contrary Canada is simply not a right-wing country. That they can't figure it out, no matter how many times any drifting towards radical/social conservatism gets obliterated in both provincial & federal elections, remains a great tragedy.

[Zipperfish]

Part of all this caterwauling and horn-blowing is the hard right trying to convince people they are larger than they actually are, as evidenced by actual voting results (for parties like Maverick, PPC)

[JaredMilne]

You know how a lot of U.S. Presidents and candidates for the Presidency often serve as state governors before making a run for the White House?

Try asking George Drew (Ontario), Bob Stanfield (Nova Scotia) and Tommy Douglas (Saskatchewan) how much being a former provincial Premier helped them in their runs for Prime Minister.

How many people would even vote for Charest? I'd be shocked if he managed to get a lot of Prairie support, given that he's both a Franco-Quebecois and a more moderate Eastern Tory. Most of the accomplishments the letter describes occurred before Charest became Premier of Quebec.

He stumbled out of the gate as Premier-I spent parts of the '05 and '06 summers in Quebec, and the locals in Jonquiere and Quebec City made it clear that they were not thrilled with his performance. One of the reasons he lasted as long as he did was because his main opponents were idiots like André "New Coke" Boisclair and Pauline Marois. When Marois finally replaced him 10 years ago, it wasn't because she was a great campaigner, but because Quebecers were sick of Charest. She only won a minority that collapsed two years later after she crapped the bed with the Charter of Values, and the Liberals retook power under the underrated Philippe Couillard.

So, given his political record in la belle province, I don't think Quebecers would flock to a Charest-led Conservative party.

[DrCaleb]

JaredMilne JaredMilne:

How many people would even vote for Charest? I'd be shocked if he managed to get a lot of Prairie support, given that he's both a Franco-Quebecois and a more moderate Eastern Tory.

He might not garner much support for the far-right West, but he might garner support for the Red Tories throughout the rest of Canada. Who else will? Pollivre?

[Thanos]

Charest would probably do as well as Scheer and O'Toole did. I can see him being a lot more competitive in the Maritimes than any of Preston Manning's radical bastards have been or ever will be. Maybe also with suburban Quebec and suburban Ontario, and even increase Tory chances in the Vancouver area. It would be a case of breaking even, with what's lost in AB/Sask if the radicals refuse to co-operate being replaced elsewhere.

It's an overdue reckoning for the soul of the party. Be Canadian conservatives or be American-style ones. Have a decent chance to win every once in a while versus being permanent losers because the bulk of Canadian voters are simply not interested in associating themselves with hysterics, radicals, and outright lunatics. The choice of direction is up to conservatives. All I know right now is that despite Trudeau's numerous fuck-ups there's no certainly no indication that the growing tribe of political orphans are flocking to the Conservatives as the best alternative. Minority or majority in Parliament for the Liberals is sort of irrelevant right now. They'll still form the government no matter what, because as long as the conservatives are behaving this way Trudeau will essentially remain in near-perpetual power. The dumber the conservatives get the stronger and more entrenched Trudeau gets.

Know how I know that Canada isn't a radical nation, and never will be? If we were we would have had multiple NDP federal governments by this point in our history. If conservatives can't figure it out that if the hard left has no chance of becoming the national government simply because most Canadians will ALWAYS reject ALL extremism, no matter from which side it's coming from, then to hell with them. They deserve to be in the political wilderness for the rest of forever if they're actually retarded enough to believe that a political blueprint developed at GQP headquarters & at the orgy room of Mar-A-Lago is the best way to win in Canada.

[Zipperfish]

I would give Doug Ford a look if he were running, to be honest. I don't live in Ontario, but it doesn't seem to the never-ending shitshow that is Alberta, and I thought he managed COVID well.

I voted Liberal the last two elections (though admittedly my Liberal vote in rural south-central BC was a throwaway, lol), but don't think I'll be inclined to do so next time.

[bootlegga]

JaredMilne JaredMilne:

You know how a lot of U.S. Presidents and candidates for the Presidency often serve as state governors before making a run for the White House?

Try asking George Drew (Ontario), Bob Stanfield (Nova Scotia) and Tommy Douglas (Saskatchewan) how much being a former provincial Premier helped them in their runs for Prime Minister.

How many people would even vote for Charest? I'd be shocked if he managed to get a lot of Prairie support, given that he's both a Franco-Quebecois and a more moderate Eastern Tory. Most of the accomplishments the letter describes occurred before Charest became Premier of Quebec.

He stumbled out of the gate as Premier-I spent parts of the '05 and '06 summers in Quebec, and the locals in Jonquiere and Quebec City made it clear that they were not thrilled with his performance. One of the reasons he lasted as long as he did was because his main opponents were idiots like André "New Coke" Boisclair and Pauline Marois. When Marois finally replaced him 10 years ago, it wasn't because she was a great campaigner, but because Quebecers were sick of Charest. She only won a minority that collapsed two years later after she crapped the bed with the Charter of Values, and the Liberals retook power under the underrated Philippe Couillard.

So, given his political record in la belle province, I don't think Quebecers would flock to a Charest-led Conservative party.

Charest at least has Red Tory roots, having been a Cabinet Minister under Mulroney and leader of the federal PCs after the disastrous 1993 election until he switched to provincial politics, and that had mostly to do with trying to keep this country united by weakening the PQ in Quebec.

I agree that Charest won't do well in the Prairies, but let's be honest, no moderate conservative will do well in the Prairies.

If the CPC wants to return to government, they need to dump the social conservatives to the PPC/Maverick Party, so they have a chance again. I think many prairie conservatives, especially those in urban ridings would hold their noses and vote CPC instead of PPC, because the PPC/Maverick party will never be anything more than a fringe party in Canada. At the very best, they might win a few dozen seats, killing any chance of the CPC forming government.

It would take a lot to get me to vote CPC given the hard right shift of late, but with Charest and other moderates running the show, they'd be closer to the old PCs and might have a chance at returning to government.

But if they choose Bergen or Pollivere, they're almost certainly going to lose to Trudeau again, simply because most of Canada has evolved past most of the issues the social conservatives are still up in arms about.