Charest was on the defensive for much of the first CPC Leaders Debate, and his work for Huawei – a company that is massively unpopular among the Canadian People – is a key point of ongoing vulnerability for his campaign.
During a fiery CPC leadership debate, Jean Charest was constantly forced on the defensive.
In particular, CPC front-runner Pierre Poilievre slammed Charest’s record as Quebec Premier, and criticized Charest for pushing ‘cancel culture’.
Charest has said that Poilievre should be ‘disqualified’ for supporting the Freedom Convoy protest, even though the convoy was popular among many Conservatives.
Charest has repeatedly ignored the fact that Poilievre supported peaceful and legal protest, and said any individual who broke the law should be held accountable.
As Charest continued to try to use similar rhetoric to attack his opponents, Poilievre pushed back, focusing on a key vulnerability facing the Charest campaign:
Jean Charest’s work for Huawei, a company controlled by Communist China.
Poilievre asked Charest a simple question:
How much did he get paid by Huawei?
As you can see below, Charest repeatedly refused to answer the question despite having multiple opportunities to do so:
How much did Jean Charest get paid by Huawei?pic.twitter.com/gDoJCUL2Be
— Paul Taillon (@pjtaillon) May 5, 2022
Charest attempted to hide behind Stephen Harper, trying to claim that the federal government’s refusal to ban Huawei over a decade ago (at a time when China was much less aggressive around the world), was equivalent to working for Huawei as Charest had done.
Remember, Charest worked for Huawei at a time when the company was already facing significant criticism for links to questionable human rights practices, and at a time when it was clear that the Chinese Communist Party was becoming increasingly authoritarian, repressive, and expansionist.
Either Charest was too naïve to realize why it was wrong to work for a CCP-controlled company, or he simply didn’t care.
Neither one is acceptable.
And, given that Canadians – especially Conservative Canadians – are strongly opposed to the Chinese Communist Party and Huawei, it simply wouldn’t make any sense for someone who worked for Huawei to ever lead the Conservative Party.
After all, how could the Conservative Party ever justify having a leader who favours CCP-controlled Huawei over Canadian Truckers?
You can watch the full debate below:
Spencer Fernando
Photo – Twitter
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