Ex-minister Bellemare flays Charest but won't run against him

Quebec Liberal Leader Jean Charest's former justice minister says he won't run in the premier's riding to try to unseat him, but he is urging voters in Sherbrooke to support the PQ candidate.

Marc Bellemare saidhe realized while serving as a Liberal in cabinet that "the word of Jean Charest was worthless."

"For Jean Charest, the interests of the friends of the Liberal Party came before the interests of Quebecers," Bellemare told a news conference Friday in Sherbrooke.

Bellemare added "in every riding we should look at who is the best to defeat the Liberal.It's agovernment that has adisastrous record onintegrity and ethics.... 'Anybody but Charest,' -- ABC, that's sort of my slogan."

He said Charest cynically chose to hold a summer election to avoid the restart of the Charbonneau Commission, the provincial inquiry into corruption in the construction industry. The commission's hearings resume in mid-September and could shed light on links between construction industry players and figures within the Quebec Liberal Party.

Bellemare threw his support behind Parti Qubcois challenger Serge Cardin, the former MP for the area, and made his announcement alongside the PQ hopeful.

Cardin said he was "honoured that Mr. Bellemare has confidence in me."

Liberalsrankled

It's the latest in apatchof sour news for the Liberals, who are seeking their fourth consecutive election victory,at the end of the second full week of campaigning. On Friday, a new poll suggested for the first time since the campaign started on Aug. 1 that the Liberalstrail the PQ by a statisticallysignificant margin.

At the same time, Charest has come under fire for not condemning remarks by two of his party's candidates from Quebec's SaguenayLac-St-Jean region, Serge Simard and Carol Nron.

Both candidates said earlier this week they partly supportcomments by a localcivic leaderfrom their area, Saguenay Mayor Jean Tremblay,who touched off a firestormTuesday for his views on the PQ's proposed secularism charter.Tremblay bridled, among other things,at PQ candidate Djemila Benhabib, who is originally from Algeria andwas one of her party's figureheads for the secularism plan.Tremblay saw it as"having someone whose name I can't even pronounce come from Algeria, who doesn't understand our culture at all... make the rules."

PQ Leader Pauline Marois has denounced Tremblay's statements, as has Coalition Avenir Qubec Leader Franois Legault.