Plus ça change: Jean Charest tries to repeat history with Conservative leadership bidOTTAWA — It's just after 9 a.m. on a Friday morning at Wilfrid's Restaurant in the Château Laurier and guests are helping themselves to a breakfast buffet when Jean Charest takes his seat in the corner of the room. It's not even the first time others have convinced Charest to run for leadership of a party. If he has been reintroducing himself to voters during the federal leadership campaign, it has been with a careful effort not to reintroduce them to his baggage. Though he bristles today at any accusation he hasn't been aligned with the federal Conservative party, he wasn't always a friend to former prime minister Stephen Harper. Rayes, who thinks Bill 21's importance in the Conservative leadership race is overblown, was the first to approach Charest to come to the rescue of a flailing federal party early this year.

Source: CBC News September 04, 2022 11:31 UTC