One-on-one with Jean Charest

(Nick Gamache/CBC)

It was oppressively hot in Quebec City on Wednesday. Yet there I was wearing a suit... Why?
The House crew was on its way to Jean Charest's office at the National Assembly.

Quebec's Premier rarely does one-on-one interviews and we wanted to make the most of it.

It's funny the things you notice when you walk into a room. Right away I noticed the inflatable Superman behind Mr. Charest's desk. There was a biography of Harry Truman on his desk, pictures of his family by his computer... and a cellphone on a pile of paper in front of him. That's one number I'd like to have in my Blackberry!

Our host this week, Tim Duboyce, asked about Charest's take on Quebec's relationship with Ottawa and with other provinces, mainly Alberta. They also spoke about the corruption allegations that have been hurting the Quebec Liberals for months now.

Finally, the part of the discussion concerning Mr. Charest's political future turned into - if you ask me - one of the highlights of the interview. Even though we had exceeded the amount of time we'd been given to talk to him, Mr. Charest kept us around for several minutes for an off-the-record chat.

You can hear our exclusive interview with Jean Charest on Saturday morning, right after the 9 o'clock news.