BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'Poilievre's team takes aim at Charest's Conservative cred as his campaign takes shape published March 8.
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If there is one thing that all candidates for the Conservative party leadership and their supporters should adopt it is a sense of civility and sense of history and then utilize them both during the campaign.
In an article on Tuesday, Senator Leo Housakos, a supporter of Pierre Poilievre, referred to Jean Charest as a “Conservative of convenience.” He went on to say “He wants to relive a lost opportunity.”
Fortunately, the Canadian Press article quotes Poilievre as, “characterizing these attacks as honest disagreements about policy and not being personal."
Personally, I have not yet decided who to support, but let me take care of Senator Housakos both personally, factually and historically.
First of all if Senator Housakas refers to Jean Charest as a “Conservative of convenience” then let me suggest that Housakos, as a senator, is a “Conservative of comfort” because he was “appointed” as a Senator and not elected by the people.
Housakos then goes on to suggest Charest wants to “relive a missed opportunity.” The Senator should remember the referendum of 1995 when the separatists in Quebec only lost by a narrow margin.
After that, Jean Charest responded to the challenge by seeking office provincially as a Quebec Liberal and was eventually elected premier. I suggest to the Senator that this was a tough challenge at the time and by no means considered an “opportunity.”
Moreover, many conservatives at the time, including myself, encouraged him to do so for the good of the country as a whole.
Having taken Senator Housakos to task I will note that he has made a considerable contribution to Canadian politics as a Senator.
Let's settle down and put aside the rhetoric. Action speaks louder than words.
Doug Lewis
Orillia
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