Canada PoliticsIs it time for Quebec premier Jean Charest to step down?
As another election looms in la belle province, Quebec premier Jean Charest is, once again, being told his job is in jeopardy.
As explained by Rhéal Séguin of the Globe and Mail, Charest's Liberal government has been grappling with allegations of corruption, collusion, influence peddling and fraud that include the awarding of government contracts and the financing of political parties.
"Now, as the corruption issue comes to a head, it competes for front-page headlines with student protests over tuition-fee hikes that have degenerated into violence in the Montreal streets and show no signs of ending," he writes.
"While Premier Jean Charest once seemed inclined to call an election this spring, his caucus has warned that he could now be headed for disaster at the polls."
Charest is no stranger to political upheaval.
He was a federal Tory cabinet minister when he was just in his 20s, but was forced to resign over an ill-advised phone call to a judge.
His career rebounded in 1993 when he took the helm of the Progressive Conservatives immediately after the party was decimated to only two seats in the House of Commons.
Charest became Quebec's premier in 2003 but his popularity ratings plummeted into the teens by the 2007 provincial election. He managed to cling to power in the 2007 election with a minority government, and - to the surprise of many - won a majority in 2009.
While Charest (aka the comeback kid of Canadian politics) loves to remind pundits how many times in his political career he has been given up for dead only to rebound, maybe it's time for him to take a break?
In an op-ed piece for the Financial Post, Michael Carin, a former editor of Montreal Business Magazine, suggests a break would help Charest to obtain his dream job - the job of Prime Minister of Canada.
"As a man outstandingly adept at reading the writing on the wall, and having been Prime Minister since 2006, [Stephen Harper] will retire at the top of his game [in 2015]. That will leave a job vacancy at the head of your former party...
Resign your office. Join a Toronto law firm (or even better, a Calgary oil company!). Renew and rebrand yourself. Reintegrate yourself into the Canadian mosaic.
In 2015 you will be 57 years old, a suitable age for you to recapture a position you once held on the federal stage.
With your roots in Quebec, you will be a formidable candidate to lead the Conservative party. Everybody knows that your original dream was to be prime minister of Canada. Perform the selfless act now required for both the protection of economic progress in Quebec and the preservation of national unity, and you may yet reach the PMO with the help of a grateful country."
Should Charest choose to run for another term as Quebec's premier, he must call an election sometime between this spring and late 2013.
