Ottawa

Charest takes the jump

Oh, I know Mario Dumont is not at the top of his game or his popularity these days, loin de là, but he is a skilled critic and Jean Charest has given him a target. “The economy? …This morning the National Assembly was sitting. It was supposed to talk about the economy. And Jean Charest is closing the shop until March….he’s putting the National Assembly up on blocks.”

This month’s conventional wisdom is that this sort of argument — the premier is calling an election out of opportunism, he’s cynical — is a “process story” that real voters don’t care about. And that’s true, except when it’s not true. His chief of staff, Dan Gagnier, has a few things to say about that.

No predictions from this corner for today. Charest has been an impressive premier. His two opponents are, if anything, weaker today than the opponents he faced last time. And he’s taking a great big risk.

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