MONTREAL - Jean Charest chatted with Mutsumi Takahashi about some of the issues in the upcoming election and managed to aim his sights at rival CAQ leader Francois Legault.
"Legault is a separatist; he’s been that all his life, he used to say that it was urgent to be separated from Canada. He continues to say he’s a separatist but says he won’t promote it actively. Let me put it in simple terms, if it looks like a duck, and it talks like a duck, then it’s a duck. That’s what Legault is, he’s a separatist."
Charest said that he is still working hard to earn the Anglophone vote, which he has won easily, as has his predecessors leading the Liberal party.
"We have never taken granted the support of any group whether it’s the Anglo community of Quebec, or allophones or whatever we may wish to call them, we believe it’s very important to gain their confidence. We’re all Quebecers in the end and I think of a number of things we’ve done in help care and support for institutions that are closet to he heart."
He took the occasion to pick on Legault's proposal to abolish the linguistically-aligned school boards.
"If there’s an institution that’s important to the Anglophone community in Quebec and one of the institutions the community as some say is the school board and Legault is proposing we abolish them which would be a terrible loss for the Anglophones of Quebec."
Charest said he’s enjoying being premier.
“I love what I do, I believe passionately in it, there are days when it’s a very tough job especially when you’re making decisions in the long term but this is a different campaign because it speaks for why I am in politics I am campaigning for things I believe in, the right for education and the right for us to get along with each other. “
Watch the full interview in the adjacent video.
