The Charest-Poilievre clash is a conflict over Conservative identity

A month ago, Pierre Poilievre used his highly weaponized Twitter account to announce a run for the Conservative leadership with a tightly staged three-minute video: the MP in a suit and tie, seated at a desk before an expansive bookshelf, vowing to deliver Canadians from oppressive government and elite control.

On Thursday, Jean Charest announced his own candidacy for the Conservative leadership by joining Twitter and posting a casual 22-second video — no tie, only a blank white wall behind him — to greet his new followers.

Viewed from one angle, Charest's opening foray may have looked dangerously unsophisticated in its approach to modern politics. On the other hand, the fact that he apparently somehow avoided Twitter's outrage machine up to now might be a mark of grounded maturity.

But whatever else Charest brings to the Conservative leadership race, he might at least offer a clear and viable alternative for a party with unanswered questions about what it should be.

Charest's story is certainly a fascinating one, with few precedents. A former minister in the cabinets of Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell, he led the Progressive Conservative party and was a significant presence in the 1995 referendum campaign that barely kept the country together.

He was recruited to slay the separatist beast as leader of Quebec's Liberal party — the province's primary federalist option in those days. He eventually bested the Parti Quebecois and governed the province for nine years before leaving politics in 2012.

John Turner came back to lead the Liberal Party in 1984 after nine years away from politics. Joe Clark returned to lead the moribund PC party in 1998 after leaving politics in 1993. But both of those leaders had substantial history with the parties they were returning to lead.

Charest's PC party was replaced by the modern Conservative Party of Canada in 2003 and today's CPC is only periodically willing to acknowledge anything that happened before that date.

The Poilievre campaign's response to Charest's candidacy has been to shout that he isn't really a Conservative — that his turn as leader of the Quebec Liberals showed his true place on the ideological spectrum. The Charest campaign's slogan — "built to win" — might be read as a response to that charge.

In his words and his style, Poilievre is offering Conservatives an opportunity to scratch a political itch — to be unapologetically and aggressively conservative, to air grievances and attack everything about Justin Trudeau and the Liberal agenda.

Poilievre presents himself as a fearless populist. His campaign cry of "freedom" followed on his enthusiastic embrace of the self-styled "freedom convoy" that occupied downtown Ottawa.

WATCH: Pierre Poilievre discusses anti-vaccine mandate protest

"Built to win" promises Conservatives something else — a chance to actually hold power. "Built to win" says that while Charest might not say or do all the things that the Conservative base wants, he's better positioned to win the next federal election.

In fact, he might be better positioned to win the next federal election precisely because he doesn't say or do all the things that Poilievre does.