Jean Charest

John James "Jean" Charest (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ ʃɑʁɛ]; born June 24, 1958) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 29th premier of Quebec from 2003 to 2012. Prior to that, he was a member of Parliament (MP) between 1984 and 1998. After holding several Cabinet posts from 1986 to 1990 and from 1991 to 1993, he was the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1993 to 1998. Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Charest worked as a lawyer before becoming an MP following the 1984 federal election. In 1986 he joined Brian Mulroney's government as a minister of state, but resigned from cabinet in 1990 after improperly speaking to a judge about an active court case. He returned to cabinet in 1991 as the minister of the environment. Charest ran to succeed Mulroney as party leader and prime minister in the PCs' 1993 leadership election, but placed second to Kim Campbell. Charest served as Campbell's industry minister and deputy prime minister. After the PCs' defeat in the 1993 election, Charest succeeded Campbell as party leader. He led the PCs to a minor recovery in the 1997 election. Charest left federal politics in 1998 and was elected to lead the Quebec Liberal Party, the province's main federalist political party. He became premier of Quebec after the Liberals won the 2003 provincial election. He won two more elections until he lost the 2012 election to the sovereigntist Parti Quebecois (PQ) and resigned as premier. After politics, Charest worked as a consultant, including for Huawei on the Meng Wanzhou case and for its 5G network plans in Canada, and joined McCarthy Tétrault LLP as a partner. Charest was a candidate in the 2022 Conservative Party of Canada leadership election, finishing a distant second to Pierre Poilievre.

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