Prime minister-designate Mark Carney’s team has approached former Quebec premier Jean Charest to offer him a role, Radio-Canada is reporting.
The nature of the position is unknown. But according to sources with knowledge of the discussion, Charest has no intention of becoming a minister.
CBC News is not identifying the source because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Charest, who was instrumental in setting in motion the Canada-European Union free trade agreement (CETA), is currently a member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations.
In 2022, Charest ran unsuccessfully against Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in the party’s leadership race. The former Quebec Liberal Party premier secured only 11.65 per cent of the popular vote compared to Poilievre who won 70.7 per cent.
Charest was also a Progressive Conservative MP in the 1990s and the federal party’s leader.
Chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton speaks with Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand. They discuss the federal government’s response as we near the latest date U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to launch 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods. Plus, Jean Charest, a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Canada-U.S. Relations, on his visit to Washington this past week and mixed messages from Trump.
While it is important for allies of Canada to defend the country, “no one is going to stand up for us in the way that we have to stand up for ourselves,” Charest said in an interview last week with CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live.
“We have to come to terms with the fact that we’re going to live in a very different world. And, by the way, that’s true post-Trump,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s about us. Our future. Set aside Mr. Trump. Set aside Mr. Starmer. What do we, as Canadians, want to build as an economy, as a society?”
