Conservative leadership candidate Jean Charest says claims he's a Liberal are 'ludicrous'

Federal Conservative leadership candidate Jean Charest is pushing back on claims made by his rival Pierre Poilievre that he is a Liberal, calling the allegation “ludicrous.”

“When (Poilievre) says I’m a Liberal, is there anyone in the country that doesn't already know that I went to Quebec politics to fight the separatists’ cause in a coalition party that was called the Liberal Party, as is this case in British Columbia,” said Charest, in an interview airing Sunday morning on CTV’s Question Period with Evan Solomon.

Poilievre and his surrogates have been attempting to paint Charest as a Liberal, due to Charest serving as the Quebec premier from 2003 until 2012 as a member of the Quebec Liberal Party.

“I just respectfully disagree with his decision to raise the sales tax when he was a Liberal premier. He also brought in a carbon tax that makes life more expensive,” Poilievre said in an interview with CP24, adding that the federal Conservatives needed a “true conservative” to lead the party.

Charest was also the leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party from 1993 to 1998 and held multiple portfolios in the Brian Mulroney government, including deputy prime minister.

Charest said he relishes the attacks from Poilievre, who has been viewed as the front-runner to become the next Conservative leader.

“I take it as a compliment given the fact that (Poilievre) is spending more time attacking me than actually doing his own campaign,” said Charest.

Poilievre also attacked Charest for his work in the private sector, including providing advice to Chinese telecom company Huawei on the Meng Wanzhou case, while Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were in jail.

Charest dismissed the claims. “Let me put it very simply: the work that I did helped release the two Michaels,” said Charest, adding that he worked directly with the family of Michael Kovrig to help get him released.

Charest also took his first major swing of the race at Poilievre, saying that he wouldn’t actually follow through on a core campaign promise to rescind the carbon tax if elected prime minister.

“(Poilievre) said he’d scrap the carbon tax, and the last time I heard that was Jean Chretien saying he was going to scrap the GST. Draw your own conclusion.”