Perrault was president of the Young Progressive Conservatives of Quebec in the early 1990s. She was a special advisor to Jean Charest on three occasions between 1989 and 1997, including during the 1995 Quebec referendum on sovereignty. She later worked as a special advisor to Peter MacKay (1997) and press attachée and senior advisor to Joe Clark (1998–99). Perrault herself ran for the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative candidate in 1997 and placed a credible second against the Bloc Québécois incumbent in Joliette.