“I have a competitor by the name of Mr Poilievre who, as you know, supported the exclusion,” Charest told CTV Morning Live on Friday. “And if you want to be a leader in this country and a legislator, you can not make laws and break laws. “Laws are not a buffet table, if you are a legislator, from which you choose what you want. “Because what you really say to people is that I am above the law,” Charest added in a separate interview with CTV News. “You can not be a party leader and the country’s chief legislator, as prime minister, and support people who break the law. That excludes you. “ The comments seem to signal a change for Charest, who has largely moved away from responding to Poilievre’s attacks since entering the race about a month ago. But on Friday, she raised him without prompting when she spoke with CTV Morning Live presenter Leslie Roberts. Protests over the Freedom Convoy occupied downtown Ottawa for three weeks, leading to hundreds of arrests and millions of dollars in policing and other expenses for the city. The federal government first invoked the emergency law and the county and city declared a state of emergency. Poilievre, who represents Carleton’s Ottawa rider, visited the truckers at bus stops en route to Ottawa in January. He later said he was “proud of the truckers” in an interview with Postmedia and blamed Prime Minister Justin Trinto for the protests. Early polls suggest Poilievre has the lead in the leadership race. Charest, who served as Quebec’s prime minister from 2003 to 2012, is adapting his campaign message to the centrist Tories. “I’m the underdog in this fight,” said Charest. “And you know what? I’ve been an underdog all my life. So I don’t mind being there, it’s a place I recognize.” Charest said he would introduce legislation that would make it a crime to block critical infrastructure, including border crossings and pipelines. Charest, without naming Poilievre, also described the fight as a tough choice for the party between “American-style politics” and a more Canadian style. “Whether we are going to follow the path of American-style politics, the political wedge and the attacks that we actually see in this leadership race,” he said. “Or we will become a Canadian Conservative party, which I believe in. “We are more divided now as a country than we were in the 1980s, and that explains why I am a candidate. “Because it does not have to be that way.”
