QUEBEC - A decade after he made his foray into provincial politics, Quebec Premier Jean Charest says he's learned that he needs to be a better communicator.
Celebrating 10 years as leader of the Quebec Liberal party on Sunday, Charest told about 1,000 supporters that his approach was sometimes clumsy and that he wasn't always able to explain the Liberal party's proposed plans during his first mandate.
"I didn't do enough and I learned a very valuable lesson,'' Charest told the gathering in Quebec City.
"I changed my approach.''
Charest says Quebecers are satisfied with their government and are not interested in an election anytime soon.
The premier said he doesn't expect to head to the polls again until sometime in 2010.
"I don't see an election in 2008, there's no reason for it, and also in 2009, we have to ask why we'd have an election then,'' Charest told reporters.
"A government that works together, that's what Quebecers want.''
Charest said the minority government situation in Quebec bears little resemblance to the minority Conservative government in Ottawa, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper has often sought a majority vote to push ahead his party's agenda.
"That's not at all what we have here,'' he said.
Under political and public pressure, Charest left his old job as leader of the federal Progressive Conservative party to take over as Quebec Liberal leader on April 30, 1998.
The Sherbrooke native was widely viewed at the time as having the best chance at toppling the firmly entrenched Parti Quebecois government.
Charest, with 15 years under his belt as a federal politician, took over the Liberal leadership from Daniel Johnson.
Seven months later, Charest entered Quebec's legislature by winning a seat in Sherbrooke.
After years as the official Opposition, Charest led the Quebec Liberals to a majority in the provincial legislature in April 2003, ending a nine-year run by the PQ.
After a stormy first mandate, Charest was re-elected in 2007 to lead the province's first minority government in 129 years, with the upstart Action democratique du Quebec as the official opposition and the Parti Quebecois relegated to third place.
Charest, who turns 50 on June 24, says he's living well with the minority mandate dealt to him by the population, but expects a break-up between the opposition parties is inevitable.
The Liberals have been enjoying a surge in the polls in recent months after being hammered through most of his first term.
Charest wouldn't comment on the polls, but insisted that hard work will be needed to reconnect with Quebecers and regain some of those seats lost the last time around.
Voters will head to the polls in Hull and the Montreal ridings of Pointe-aux-Trembles and Bourget in byelections to be held on May 12.
