Jean Charest

Jean Charest , 1958-, Canadian politician. A lawyer and member of the Progressive Conservative party, he was been a member of parliament from Quebec since 1984. From 1986 to 1993 Charest served in cabinet positions—as minister of state for youth (1986-90) and fitness and amateur sport (1988-90), minister of the environment (1991-93), and deputy prime minister (1993). After the Progressive Conservatives suffered a crushing defeat in the 1993 parliamentary elections, Charest replaced Kim Campbell as head of the badly faltering national party and pledged to rejuvenate it. In the debate that preceded the Oct., 1995, referendum on Quebec independence from Canada, Charest proved himself a highly persuasive advocate of Canadian federalism and an important counterinfluence to Lucien Bouchard 's impassioned separatist stance. Charest led the his party to a modest recovery in the 1997 national elections, but in 1998 he resigned as Progressive Conservative leader to assume leadership of the Quebec Liberal party. He led the Liberals to a majority in the National Assembly in 2003 and became Quebec's premier; he remained in the post after the Liberals retained a plurality in 2007 and formed a minority government.

Charest, Jean (b. 24 June 1958). Premier of Quebec, 2003–  Born at Sherbrooke (Quebec), he studied at the University of Sherbrooke and qualified as a lawyer in 1981. He entered the House of Commons in 1984, and became Secretary of State in 1986. He was Minister for the Environment, 1990–3, and in 1993, following the resignation of Mulroney, he campaigned unsuccessfully for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party against Campbell. He became deputy Prime Minister in her government, succeeding her as party leader when he was one of only two Conservative members to be elected to Parliament in the 1993 general elections. He subsequently switched to the Liberal Party and became its leader in Quebec. He led the Liberals to win a majority of the popular vote in the 1998 provincial elections, and won the 2003 elections by a landslide.