Quebecers showing no love for Jean Charest

He’s won three straight elections, but voters have never warmed to the Quebec premier. Now it looks like he’s on his way out.

Jean Charest’s relationship with Quebec voters is on the rocks. We’re only three days into an inquiry over allegations the Quebec premier unfairly influenced the judicial selection process, and already voters are ready to send him packing. Nearly two thirds want him to resign.

The allegations come from Marc Bellemare, who served as minister of justice under Charest for less than a year in 2003. Last week Bellemare gave two days of damning testimony against Charest, but yesterday looked a little unsure under cross-examination.

Even though there are serious questions about Bellemare’s credibility, Charest “has sunk so low in the public’s esteem … that people are prepared to believe the worst about him, regardless of the source of the information,” according to the National Post’s Graeme Hamilton. Despite the fact that Charest has won three successive elections, “Quebecers’ relationship with him has not even risen to the level of love-hate; tolerate-hate would be more accurate.” With his popularity at an all-time low, even if he escapes the inquiry, there’s little to suggest he can win back the voters’ affection.

Perhaps Quebecers just don’t know Charest well enough. Former diplomat L. Ian MacDonald has known him for 25 years, and waxes bromantic about him in the Montreal Gazette. “(O)ne thing he learned from his parents … was manners. He is exquisitely courteous and polite, with friends, colleagues, and staff alike.” MacDonald can tell the charges against Charest are false because of the tone Bellemare claims the premier used. “There isn't even a smidgen of authenticity to them. Charest simply doesn't talk like that,” he writes, “I know his voice.”

If Charest steps down, it will be bad news for the rest of Canada according to Chantal Hébert in the Toronto Star. “There probably has never been a Quebec premier as comfortable with the rest of Canada as Jean Charest and the same is true in the reverse.” A staunch federalist who fought on the frontlines of the 1995 referendum, he’s been a buffer between Quebec nationalists and Ottawa on several issues. But now, it looks like the honeymoon is over.