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There are a lot of names being thrown out as potential candidates but the acid test on participating in this contest is whether you can speak and listen to Canada’s citizens. There are 78 ridings in Quebec and another 10 outside it, where one third of the population speak French as their native tongue. A Conservative leader without French would likely find him or herself 88 seats down before a vote was counted.

Mulroney is out but on Wednesday Radio Canada reported Jean Charest, the former Progressive Conservative leader and later Quebec premier, is consulting with friends about running. The initial reaction among Conservatives I spoke with was skepticism – he’s been out of federal politics for more than 20 years and working in the private sector for seven, they pointed out, not to mention messy legal complications around corruption trials in Quebec that centre on his time as premier.

But, unlikely as it may seem, this one could have legs, according to one well-connected source. “It would be an earthquake in the race,” he said. “Who else has his kind of experience?”

Photo by Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press/File

The snark on Twitter is that the party he used to lead no longer exists, which is true. But that, in part, may be to his advantage. The Conservative Party needs a curative when it comes to national unity, climate change and Canada’s place in the world – issues that are said to motivate Charest.

Even though he was first elected in 1984 and was in Brian Mulroney’s cabinet at the age of 28, he is still only 61. He would also, of course, have appeal in French-speaking Canada.