Campaign trail leads to famous watering hole

By David Swick

THE MIDTOWN TAVERN bubbled with the usual lunch crowd yesterday - and one long table of black and blue suits. At the head of the table was the man running for prime minister. "Do you know who that is?" I asked the dockworker lunching beside me.

"No."

"Jean Charest."

"Who?"

Jean Charest has a difficult task. The national leader of the Progressive Conservatives comprises half of his party's members in the House of Commons. He's 30 points behind in the polls. And his face and name are still not known by many Canadians. Here in Nova Scotia, he's getting curious advice. Let's compare meal deals.

Last week, Jean Chretien, John Savage, and Ron MacDonald had a spontaneous lunch at McDonald's, and reaped positive press depicting them as downhome folks. So this week, top Tories eat at the Midtown, after announcing it the day before. Midtown waiters said that rather than draw a crowd the news appeared to scare some customers away. The Nova Scotia Tory leadership, however, was on hand to greet Charest. Terry Donahoe looked at ease, but everyone else appeared out of place. They looked, in fact, like they would rather be down the street in the Prince George, enjoying filets and brandies.

There were little awkwardnesses. Provincial Tory leader John Hamm ordered milk. When Charest said hi to the third-ranking Tory in Nova Scotia, Ron Russell had to introduce himself by name. On a wall nearby was an enlarged photograph of Jean Chretien, beaming as he lifts three cases of Keith's.

Midtown owner Doug Grant headed over to offer Charest a Midtown baseball cap. All of the other diners ignored the Tory lunch party.

Chances are, that won't always be the case. Charest stands an excellent chance of becoming prime minister. Even in the great massacre of 1993, the PC party won more than two million votes. It still controls the Senate, is official Opposition in five provinces, and government in three. Charest is only 38. No one else in his party wants the job.

The Liberal plunge will come, and those votes will have to go somewhere. Where will they go? To regional parties? To Reform or the NDP? Most Canadians stick closer to the middle.

Of equal importance, Charest's profile is a snug fit for the Canadian majority. He's conservative, but not rabidly so. He's a Quebecois who has always been a Canadian nationalist. He's cute: short and plump, with a wild mass of little-boy curls. He's smart, and self-deprecating, and nice.

One gets the sense he knows this. Charest knows he will one day be prime minister, is eminently electable despite the hole his party is in. So it's important to hear what he says now.

Some interesting points were raised after lunch, during a session with reporters and editors at The Daily News. About his nine years' service in the Mulroney government, Charest has "no qualms at all, and history will judge it (the government) well." The next election will be fought on the future, not the past, "and anyone who raises (the Mulroney years) should be held in suspicion."

Charest regularly talks to all four living former Conservative leaders: Bob Stanfield, Joe Clark, Mulroney, and Kim Campbell. (Praising the last Nova Scotian to lead the sometimes-fractious party, Charest recalled that after the 1993 election Stanfield quipped, "I envy the size of your caucus.")

When Canadians vote for a leader, Charest said, we do so with three things in mind: we want someone who knows the country, someone who understands the problems, and someone with some idea what to do. In the next election, Charest said, "I just want (Canadians) to look at me, and decide if this is someone they want to entrust their country to."