Former Quebec premier Jean Charest will not run for Conservative leadership
Former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister and Liberal premier of Quebec Jean Charest will not run for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.
«I will not be a candidate. It is final,» he told Radio-Canada’s Patrice Roy in an interview that will be broadcast at 5 p.m. ET on ICI RDI.
Charest said he’d wavered on joining the race to lead the CPC. Over his long political career he served in Brian Mulroney’s cabinet before taking the leadership of the federal Progressive Conservatives when they were down to just two seats in the 1990s.
He left the federal scene in 1998 to join the Quebec Liberal Party, eventually serving as premier between 2003 and 2012.
For years now, Quebec’s anti-corruption squad, known as UPAC, has been investigating the Quebec Liberal Party’s financing during the Charest period.
Sources previously have told Radio-Canada Charest was aware of the shadow that investigation could cast over his candidacy, but the former premier maintains he did nothing wrong.
Last week, Charest’s lawyer said he is innocent of any wrongdoing in political financing and Quebec’s anti-corruption squad should immediately end its six-year investigation, which has not led to charges against Charest’s friend, Marc Bibeau, or anyone else.
«Stop this investigation,» said Michel Massicotte. «Stop saying we are hiding something, or whatever. We have offered our full co-operation, but this co-operation does not seem to have been reciprocated.»
More to come …
