Jean Charest urges Quebecers to pay attention to election campaign

Extended: Charest urges voters to pay attention Former Liberal Premier Jean Charest offered some choice words for the parties vying for power at Bishop's university on Monday.

Former Quebec premier Jean Charest has been away from active politics for the past six years, and while he says he prefers not to get involved, he is urging Quebecers to pay close attention to the upcoming election campaign – including the ongoing debate over whether the possibility of an eventual referendum is a real threat.

“I don't want to comment on the campaign. I don't want to be a part of the campaign. But that's among the issues that you will have in front of you – to determine whether or not this represents an issue for Francois Legault,” he told CTV Montreal.

The CAQ leader – a former prominent Parti Quebecois cabinet minister – has repeatedly said he has shelved the idea of fighting for an independent Quebec.

At a gathering of the party’s candidates in Shawinigan on Sunday, Legault stuck to that message.

“I'm clear in French and in English: Never will a CAQ government hold a referendum on sovereignty. Not in the first mandate, not in the second. Never,” Legault said, as CAQ caucus members and candidates broke into applause behind him.

But just as often as Legault has repeated that line, the Couillard Liberals have described the perceived frontrunner as a man not to be trusted.

“I've never heard any commitments towards Canada,” Couillard told reporters at the Liberal youth wing policy convention on Saturday, the day he announced the election campaign will officially begin Aug. 23.

“He tolerates Canada and he said recently we can't do separation because the numbers are not there. Does that mean if the numbers are okay he will go in that direction?”

In an interview with the Canadian Press, Liberal campaign chair Alexandre Taillefer said the election of a CAQ government would be a threat to “social peace” – a comment Charest considers par for the course.

“Put that down as the rhetoric of the campaign,” Charest said.

“It's for you and I in the end to determine out of all of what we'll hear whether that's a fair comment or not. We'll see during the campaign.”

As for PQ leader Jean-Francois Lisee, he’s promised there would be no referendum in his first mandate if he were elected to lead the province.

For the first time in decades, it appears the ballot box question won’t be about Quebec sovereignty, but Charest says that doesn’t mean the issue won’t come back.

“The separatist movement is not going to go away. It will never go away. It will always be there. So it would be a great mistake to think that this issue is dead,” said Charest.

While Charest – now 60 – says he’s happy to be away from active politics, he isn’t ruling out the possibility of getting involved again in the future.

“The common thread of my whole political career has been the idea of Quebec in Canada. And it's what I care about very, very deeply, and what I believe in. And so yes, if there was a national unity crisis, I wouldn't be on the sidelines. That's for sure.”

Speaking at a forum on civic engagement for young English speakers at Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Charest stressed the importance of the anglophone community.

“I think that the Liberal party under Mr. Couillard has acknowledged the fact that the anglophone community in Quebec needs to receive more attention, and that they need to listen to them – and they acted on that by creating the secretariat,” he said.

In what will be a first in the history of provincial politics in Quebec, the four party leaders – Couillard, Lisee, Legault and Quebec Solidaire’s Manon Masse – will participate in a televised English-language debate on Sept. 17.