Jean Charest earned his political chops as a cabinet minister in the Conservative government of Lyin' Brian Mulroney.
For almost ten years he has been the Liberal premier of Quebec.
It says something about the opportunistic nature of Canadian politicians when Conservatives can so seamlessly morph into Liberals, or in the case of Bob Rae, a "socialist" can become a Liberal, or in the case of Thomas Mulcair, a member of Charest's Liberal government remakes himself as a "socialist".
One could be forgiven for dismissing the lot of them as unprincipled money-grubbing power-mongers.
Charest now has the distinction of being the Canadian politician guilty of the most egregious misreading of the Canadian public in recent memory.
When Charest imposed tuition increases on Quebec students more than three months ago he had the universal support of the opinion-making establishment across the country.
Over three months he has managed to fan a tuition protest into a full-fledged revolt that those same opinion-makers increasingly acknowledge is now about far more than tuition.
That's leadership!
This brave new wave of political awareness will eventually sweep the political old guard into the the dustbin.
Goodbye, ye carpet-baggers left and right!
It's finally 1968 in Canada.
Well, seven years later I guess I have to admit they're not quite in the dust-bin of history... yet!
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