Jean Charest
Jean Charest (born June 24, 1958) is a lawyer and the Premier of Quebec. His legal name is John James Charest.
Profile
Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, he worked as a lawyer from 1981 until he was elected Progressive Conservative member of Parliament for Sherbrooke in the 1984 election. In 1986, at age 28, he was appointed to Brian Mulroney's cabinet as minister of state for youth, the youngest Cabinet minister in Canadian history. In 1988, he became minister of state for fitness and amateur sport, and environment minister in 1991.
After Mulroney's retirement as PC Party leader and prime minister, Charest was a candidate at the 1993 Progressive Conservative leadership convention. He impressed many observers and party members, and placed a strong second to Defence Minister Kim Campbell, who had held a large lead going into the convention. Charest served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, Science and Technology in Campbell's cabinet.
In the 1993 election, the Conservative party was swept from power: only two candidates out of 295 electoral districts (ridings) were elected—Charest himself and Elsie Wayne. Charest was appointed interim leader following Campbell's resignation.
In April 1995, he was confirmed as party leader and launched a rebuilding effort. In the 1997 election, the Tories received 19% of the vote, but won only 20 seats out of 301, mostly in Atlantic Canada. The party was back from the brink, but Charest himself considered the result a disappointment.
In April 1998, Charest left federal politics to become leader of the Quebec Liberal Party. (The QLP is not affiliated with the federal Liberals.)
In the 1998 Quebec election, the Quebec Liberals received more votes than the incumbent Parti Québécois, but because the Liberal vote was concentrated in fewer ridings, the PQ won enough seats to form another majority government. In the number of National Assembly seats held by the two parties, the results were almost identical to the previous election of 1994, in which the Liberals had been led by Daniel Johnson, Jr.
In the April 2003 election, Charest was elected premier of Quebec with a majority government, ending nine years of rule by the PQ.
Declaring that he had a mandate to reform health care, cut taxes, reduce spending and reduce the size of government, Charest prepared an ambitious neoliberal agenda. However, as of early 2004, he has encountered substantial opposition from unions and other groups, and he and his party have suffered considerable loss of popularity in the polls (see Opposition to the Charest government).
Elections as party leader
Canada: He lost the 1997 election.
Quebec: He lost the 1998 election and won the 2003 election.
See also
