The Online Vendetta Against Godfather Charest

The Quebec premier's opponents have gotten creative with their attacks, but whether he'll soon sleep with the political fishes is ultimately up to his own party.

Sun Media’s Eric Duhaime defends Gérard Deltell, the opposition politician who called Premier Jean Charest the “godfather” of the Liberal family on Saturday. Charest’s behaviour merits no less damning a label, argues Duhaime, who says the premier used “the code of Omerta” keep his party members silent on widespread calls for an inquiry into corruption in the construction industry. The fact that Deltell’s comments came days after the murder of real-life Mafia don Nicolo Rizzuto only made the comparison more “apropos” says Duhaime, and Charest is thin-skinned for threatening to sue Deltell. It’s possible, as Duhaime suggests, that Charest is controlling, but let’s be clear: the Rizzutos are murderers, blackmailers, and arsonists, and expecting a premier, controlling though he may be, to sit idly by while he’s compared to such criminals seems like a lot to ask.

The Montreal Gazette’s Don MacPherson praises an online petition signed by more than 176,000 people demanding Charest’s resignation, calling it “the first really successful use of social media in Quebec politics.” Presumably MacPherson is taking the large number of signatures as a success in and of itself here, because so far it’s failed to force Charest to step down. Granted, the numbers are impressive, but what they actually mean has yet to be seen.

MacPherson’s editors at the Gazette have a stern message for the signatories: “Your petition means nothing, and would mean nothing even if everyone in Quebec were to sign it.” Angry and parent-like, they follow that scolding with a lesson on Canada’s electoral system: “Unless you lived in Sherbrooke, you did not vote for or against Jean Charest in the last election. You voted for somebody in your own riding.” And that person decides who runs the province. Only party members can oust the premier mid-term, says the Gazette, and those “who really want Charest out need to shut down their computers and go speak to their Liberal MNAs.” The lesson is appreciated, but the Gazette may not have considered that in the internet age, perhaps this petition is how voters speak to their representatives, and Liberals might be listening.