JEAN CHRETIEN
Name: Joseph Jacques Jean Chretien
Born: 11 January 1934 Shawinigan, Quebec
Joseph Jacques Jean Chretien (generally known as Jean Chretien) (born
January 11, 1934), is a Canadian politician who was the twentieth Prime Minister
of Canada from November 4, 1993, to December 12, 2003, and leader of the Liberal
Party of Canada from 1990 to 2003.
Born in Shawinigan, Quebec, as the 18th of 19 children (10 of whom did not
survive infancy) to Wellie Chretien and Marie Boisvert, Jean Chretien studied
law at Université Laval. Chretien would later make light of his humble origins,
calling himself "le petit gars de Shawinigan", or the "little guy from
Shawinigan." In his youth, he suffered an attack of Bell's palsy, permanently
leaving the left side of his face partially paralyzed. Chretien used this in his
first Liberal leadership campaign, saying that he was "One politician who didn't
talk out of both sides of his mouth."
On September 10, 1957, he married Aline Chainé. They have two sons (Hubert
Chretien and Michel) and one daughter (France). He stands 6' (1.83 metres) tall.
Jean Chretien practised law in Shawinigan until he was first elected to the
Canadian House of Commons as a Liberal from the riding of Saint-Maurice–Laflèche
in the 1963 election. He would represent this Shawinigan-based riding, renamed
Saint-Maurice in 1968, for all but eight of the next 41 years.
After re-election in the 1965 election, he served as parliamentary secretary (junior
minister) to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson (1965) and then to Minister of
Finance, Mitchell Sharp (1966). He was selected for appointment as Minister of
National Revenue in 1968 by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
After the June 1968 election, he was appointed Minister of Indian Affairs and
Northern Development. His most notable achievement in this role was the 1969
White Paper, a proposal to abolish the Indian Act. The paper was widely opposed
by First Nations groups, and later abandoned.
During the October Crisis, Chretien told Trudeau to "act now, explain later",
when Trudeau was hesitant to invoke the War Measures Act. 85% of Canadians
agreed with the move. In 1974, he was appointed President of the Treasury Board;
and beginning in 1976, he served as Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce. In
1977, following the resignation of Finance Minister John Turner, Chretien
succeeded him. He was the first francophone Minister of Finance, and remains one
of only three francophones to hold that post.
Early in his career, Chretien was described by Dalton Camp as looking like the
driver of the getaway car, a condescending assessment which stuck with him, and
which was often cited by journalists and others throughout his career, and
usually ironically considering his eventual success.
Chretien stands alongside Pierre Trudeau as André Ouellet approaches Elizabeth
II to sign the Constitution Act, 1982.
The Liberals lost power in 1979. When they regained power in 1980, Chretien was
appointed Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. In this role, he
was a major force in the 1980 Quebec referendum, being one of the main federal
representatives "on the ground" during the campaign. His fiery and emotional
speeches would enthrall federalist crowds, and his blunt warnings of the
consequences of separation earned him a reputation as a "straight shooter." He
also served as Minister of State for Social Development and Minister Responsible
for Constitutional Negotiations, playing a significant role in the patriation of
the Constitution of Canada in 1982. He was the chief negotiatator of what would
be called the "Kitchen Accord", an agreement which led to the agreement of 9
provinces to patriation. His role in the dealings, however, would forever follow
him in his native Quebec, who did not ratify the Constitution (although the
Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Quebec was bound by it). In 1982, Chretien
was appointed Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources.
After Trudeau announced his retirement in early 1984 as Liberal Party leader and
Prime Minister, Chretien sought the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.
The experience was a hard one for Chretien, as many of his longtime Cabinet
allies supported the Turner campaign. He was thought to be a dark horse until
the end, but lost on the second ballot to John Turner at the leadership
convention that June. Iona Campagnolo would ominously introduce Chretien as, "Second
on the ballot, but first in our hearts." Turner personally appointed him Deputy
Prime Minister, and selected him for appointment by the Governor General as
Secretary of State for External Affairs (foreign minister). Relations between
the two were strained, especially after the Liberals were severely defeated in
the 1984 election. Chretien was one of only 17 Liberals elected from Quebec (the
party had won 74 out of 75 seats in 1980) In 1986, Chretien resigned his seat
and left public life for a time. Now working in the private sector again,
Chretien sat on the boards of several corporations. These corporations included
the Power Corporation of Canada subsidiary Consolidated Bathurst, the Toronto-Dominion
Bank, and the Brick Warehouse Corporation, among others.
Chretien would be a major focal point of dissatisfaction with Turner, with many
polls showing his popularity. His book, Straight from the Heart, was a best-seller.
After Turner's resignation as leader in 1989, Chretien announced he would run
for the party leadership at the June 1990 Liberal leadership convention in
Calgary, Alberta.
Chretien's principal opponent, Paul Martin, was generally seen as the
ideological heir to John Turner, while Chretien was the ideological heir to
Trudeau. A key moment in that race took place at an all-candidates debate in
Montreal, where the discussion quickly turned to the Meech Lake Accord. Martin
attempted to force Chretien to abandon his nuanced position on the deal and
declare for or against it. When Chretien refused to endorse the deal, young
Liberal delegates crowding the hall began to chant "vendu" ("sellout" in French)
and "Judas" at Chretien. Martin continues to state he had nothing to do with the
response from the floor, or a similar outburst by his supporters at the
convention, in which Chretien defeated Martin on the first and only ballot.
However, his reputation in his home province never recovered.
In December, Chretien returned to the House of Commons after winning a by-election
in the safe Liberal riding of Beauséjour, New Brunswick. The incumbent, Fernand
Robichaud, stood down in Chretien's favour, which is traditional practice when a
newly elected party leader doesn't have a seat in Parliament.
Chretien later revealed himself to be as staunchly federalist as Trudeau.
However, he supported the Charlottetown Accord while Trudeau opposed it.
When Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney began to lose ground
in the polls, Chretien was the major beneficiary. In particular, Chretien reaped
a major windfall after Mulroney introduced an unpopular Goods and Services Tax.
Mulroney's approval ratings declined and by 1993, opinion polls showed that his
Conservative Party would almost certainly be defeated by the Liberals under
Chretien in the election due that year. Mulroney announced his retirement in
February, and was succeeded by National Defense Minister Kim Campbell in June.
Campbell managed to pull the Conservatives to within a few percentage points of
the Liberals by the time the writs were dropped in September.
Campbell, however, had little luck overcoming the tremendous antipathy toward
Mulroney, despite a substantial bounce from the leadership convention. Chretien
saw an opportunity, and on September 19, he dropped a bombshell by releasing the
entire Liberal platform. The 112-page document, Creating Opportunity, quickly
became known as the Red Book because of its bright red cover. It was a very
specific and detailed statement of exactly what a Chretien government would do
in office.
The Liberals did not promise to remove the GST altogether as a revenue producing
agent. Instead, the Red Book pledged to replace the GST "with a system that
generates equivalent revenues, is fairer to consumers and to small business,
minimizes disruption to small business, and promotes federal-provincial fiscal
cooperation and harmonization."
Chretien promised to renegotiate of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and
reform to the unemployment insurance system. Above all, he promised to return
Canada to fiscal solvency. As proof, the Red Book gave costs for each of the
Liberals' policy goals — the first time a Canadian party had gone to such
lengths to prove that its proposals were fiscally responsible. In their first
mandate in the 1993 election, they attempted to merge the GST, however most
provinces refused to accept this change after the election. The Conservatives
put forward the idea that Chretien had actually promised to "Scrap the GST"
leading to wide public misperception.
The Red Book gave the Liberals the reputation as the party with ideas, since
none of the other parties had anything comparable. The Liberals quickly surged
to a double-digit lead in most opinion polls. By October, it was obvious that
the Liberals would win at least a minority government. Even at this stage,
however, Chretien's personal approval ratings were far behind those of Campbell.
Realizing this, the Tory campaign team released a series of ads attacking
Chretien. The second ad, released on October 14, appeared to mock Chretien's
facial paralysis, and generated a severe backlash from all sides. Even some Tory
candidates called for the ad to be yanked. Campbell was not directly responsible
for the ad, but ordered it off the air over her staff's objections. However, she
didn't apologize and lost a chance to contain the fallout from the ad.
Chretien, taking advantage of the furor, likening the Tories to the children who
teased him when he was a boy in Shawinigan. "When I was a kid people were
laughing at me," he said at an appearance in Nova Scotia. "But I accepted that
because God gave me other qualities and I'm grateful." The speech, which one
Tory described as one Chretien had waited his whole life to deliver, moved many
in the audience to tears. Chretien's approval ratings shot up, nullifying the
only advantage the Conservatives still had over him. All told, the ad flap all
but assured that the Liberals would win a majority government.
On October 25, the Liberals were elected to an overwhelming majority government,
winning 177 seats — the third-best performance in the Liberals' history, and
their most impressive win since their record of 190 seats in 1949. The Tories
were nearly evicted from the House of Commons, winning only two seats in the
worst defeat ever suffered by a governing party at the federal level. Chretien
himself yielded Beauséjour back to Robichaud in order to run in his old riding,
Saint-Maurice. However, he was unable to lead the Liberals back to their
traditional dominance in Quebec. He was one of only four Liberal MPs elected
from that province outside the Montreal area.
On November 4, 1993, Chretien was appointed by Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn as
prime minister. While Trudeau, Joe Clark and Mulroney had been relative
political outsiders prior to becoming prime minister, Chretien had served in
every Liberal cabinet since 1965. This experience gave him a masterful knowledge
of the Canadian parliamentary system, and allowed Chretien to establish a very
centralized government that, although highly efficient, was also lambasted by
critics as being a "friendly dictatorship" and intolerant of internal dissent.
Chretien turned most of his attention to clearing away the massive debt he had
inherited from the Mulroney / Campbell era. He was assisted by Martin. The
government began a program of deep cuts to provincial transfers and other areas
of government finance. During his tenure as Prime Minister, a $42 billion
deficit was eliminated, five consecutive budget surpluses were recorded, $36
billion in debt was paid down, and taxes were cut by $100 billion (cumulatively)
over 5 years, the largest tax cut in Canadian history.[3] There were, however,
undeniable costs associated with this endeavour. The cuts would result in fewer
government services, most noticeably in the health care sector, as major
reductions in federal funding to the provinces meant significant cuts in service
delivery. Moreover, the across-the- board cuts affected the operations and
achievement of the mandate of most federal departments. Many of the cuts would
be restored in later years of Chretien's period in office.
One of Chretien's main focuses in office was preventing the separation of the
province of Quebec, which was ruled by the separatist Parti Québécois for nearly
the Prime Minister's entire term. After the 1995 referendum very narrowly
defeated a proposal on Quebec sovereignty, the government passed what became
known as the Clarity Act, which said that no Canadian government would
acknowledge a Quebec declaration of independence unless a "clear majority"
supported sovereignty in a referendum based on a "clear question", as defined by
the Parliament of Canada. The size of a "clear majority" was left unspecified,
but the Supreme Court of Canada made it clear that such a majority would not be
"50% plus one vote".
On November 5, 1995, Chretien and his wife escaped injury when André Dallaire,
armed with a knife, broke in the Prime Minister's official residence at 24
Sussex Drive. Aline Chretien shut and locked the bedroom door until security
came. It is said Jean was ready to defend himself with a sharp-edged Inuit
carving.
Taking advantage of the split status of the political right, Chretien easily won
another majority government in 1997.
Chretien was involved in a controversy again in November, 1997, when the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation summit was held on the University of British Columbia
campus in Vancouver. The APEC summit was a summit of many Asian and Pacific
countries, and students on UBC's campus protested the meeting of some of these
leaders because of their poor human rights practices. One of the leaders most
criticized was then Indonesian President Suharto. Demonstrators tore down a
barrier and were pepper-sprayed. Other peaceful demonstrators were subsequently
pepper-sprayed as well. There was debate over whether the action was necessary.
Chretien responded to the media's questions about the incident by saying "For me,
pepper, I put it on my plate." Allegations soon arose that someone in the Prime
Minister's Office or Chretien himself gave the go-ahead for the pepper spraying
of protestors. Chretien denied any involvement.
In 1999, Chretien supported Canada's involvement in NATO's bombing campaign of
Yugoslavia over the issue of Kosovo. The 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia was NATO's and Canada's first deliberate non-defensive
aggression against another sovereign state.
The government under Chretien's prime ministership also introduced a new and far-reaching
Youth Criminal Justice Act, which replaced the old Young Offenders Act, and
changed the way youths were prosecuted for crimes in Canada.
Chretien was known to be friendly in foreign policy towards the People's
Republic of China. He led four "Team Canada" trade missions to China, and
sharply increased the amount of trade between the two countries during his
tenure as Prime Minister. Under his leadership, China and Canada signed several
bilateral relations agreements.
With the Canadian political right still split, Chretien called an early election
in 2000, two years ahead of requirement, winning his third straight mandate.
Following the September 11 terrorist attacks upon the United States, North
American airspace was shut down and many Canadians opened up their homes to
stranded travellers. Chretien praised Operation Yellow Ribbon, saying that it
was one of the ways it showed the best of Canadians in a time of tragedy for
their American friends and neighbours down south. In response to those attacks,
Canadian forces joined with multinational forces that invaded Afghanistan to
pursue al-Qaeda forces there.
President George W. Bush and Jean Chretien address the media before a 2002
bilateral meeting.
Chretien directed the Crown not to support the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. His
reasoning was that the war lacked UN Security Council sanction; while not a
member of the Security Council, Canada nevertheless attempted to build a
consensus for a resolution authorizing the use of force after a short (two to
three month) extension to UN weapon inspections in Iraq. (Critics also noted
that, while in opposition, he had also opposed the first US-led Gulf War.)
Although criticism from right-wing opposition was vocal, the move proved popular
with the Canadian public in general. In December of 2003, it emerged that the
government had prepared plans for Canada to send as many as 800 Canadian troops
to Iraq if the UN Security Council had authorized it; however, a UN request for
an increased deployment of Canadian soldiers to Afghanistan removed this option
from the table. This led some of Chretien's anti-war critics on the left to
accuse the Prime Minister of never really being fully opposed to the war.
Nonetheless, Canada was the first non-member of the US-led coalition to provide
significant financial aid to the post-war reconstruction effort, relative to
Canada's size. This move allowed Canadian companies to bid on reconstruction
contracts.
Name: Joseph Jacques Jean Chretien
Born: 11 January 1934 Shawinigan, Quebec
Joseph Jacques Jean Chretien (generally known as Jean Chretien) (born
January 11, 1934), is a Canadian politician who was the twentieth Prime Minister
of Canada from November 4, 1993, to December 12, 2003, and leader of the Liberal
Party of Canada from 1990 to 2003.
Born in Shawinigan, Quebec, as the 18th of 19 children (10 of whom did not
survive infancy) to Wellie Chretien and Marie Boisvert, Jean Chretien studied
law at Université Laval. Chretien would later make light of his humble origins,
calling himself "le petit gars de Shawinigan", or the "little guy from
Shawinigan." In his youth, he suffered an attack of Bell's palsy, permanently
leaving the left side of his face partially paralyzed. Chretien used this in his
first Liberal leadership campaign, saying that he was "One politician who didn't
talk out of both sides of his mouth."
On September 10, 1957, he married Aline Chainé. They have two sons (Hubert
Chretien and Michel) and one daughter (France). He stands 6' (1.83 metres) tall.
Jean Chretien practised law in Shawinigan until he was first elected to the
Canadian House of Commons as a Liberal from the riding of Saint-Maurice–Laflèche
in the 1963 election. He would represent this Shawinigan-based riding, renamed
Saint-Maurice in 1968, for all but eight of the next 41 years.
After re-election in the 1965 election, he served as parliamentary secretary (junior
minister) to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson (1965) and then to Minister of
Finance, Mitchell Sharp (1966). He was selected for appointment as Minister of
National Revenue in 1968 by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
After the June 1968 election, he was appointed Minister of Indian Affairs and
Northern Development. His most notable achievement in this role was the 1969
White Paper, a proposal to abolish the Indian Act. The paper was widely opposed
by First Nations groups, and later abandoned.
During the October Crisis, Chretien told Trudeau to "act now, explain later",
when Trudeau was hesitant to invoke the War Measures Act. 85% of Canadians
agreed with the move. In 1974, he was appointed President of the Treasury Board;
and beginning in 1976, he served as Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce. In
1977, following the resignation of Finance Minister John Turner, Chretien
succeeded him. He was the first francophone Minister of Finance, and remains one
of only three francophones to hold that post.
Early in his career, Chretien was described by Dalton Camp as looking like the
driver of the getaway car, a condescending assessment which stuck with him, and
which was often cited by journalists and others throughout his career, and
usually ironically considering his eventual success.
Chretien stands alongside Pierre Trudeau as André Ouellet approaches Elizabeth
II to sign the Constitution Act, 1982.
The Liberals lost power in 1979. When they regained power in 1980, Chretien was
appointed Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada. In this role, he
was a major force in the 1980 Quebec referendum, being one of the main federal
representatives "on the ground" during the campaign. His fiery and emotional
speeches would enthrall federalist crowds, and his blunt warnings of the
consequences of separation earned him a reputation as a "straight shooter." He
also served as Minister of State for Social Development and Minister Responsible
for Constitutional Negotiations, playing a significant role in the patriation of
the Constitution of Canada in 1982. He was the chief negotiatator of what would
be called the "Kitchen Accord", an agreement which led to the agreement of 9
provinces to patriation. His role in the dealings, however, would forever follow
him in his native Quebec, who did not ratify the Constitution (although the
Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Quebec was bound by it). In 1982, Chretien
was appointed Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources.
After Trudeau announced his retirement in early 1984 as Liberal Party leader and
Prime Minister, Chretien sought the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.
The experience was a hard one for Chretien, as many of his longtime Cabinet
allies supported the Turner campaign. He was thought to be a dark horse until
the end, but lost on the second ballot to John Turner at the leadership
convention that June. Iona Campagnolo would ominously introduce Chretien as, "Second
on the ballot, but first in our hearts." Turner personally appointed him Deputy
Prime Minister, and selected him for appointment by the Governor General as
Secretary of State for External Affairs (foreign minister). Relations between
the two were strained, especially after the Liberals were severely defeated in
the 1984 election. Chretien was one of only 17 Liberals elected from Quebec (the
party had won 74 out of 75 seats in 1980) In 1986, Chretien resigned his seat
and left public life for a time. Now working in the private sector again,
Chretien sat on the boards of several corporations. These corporations included
the Power Corporation of Canada subsidiary Consolidated Bathurst, the Toronto-Dominion
Bank, and the Brick Warehouse Corporation, among others.
Chretien would be a major focal point of dissatisfaction with Turner, with many
polls showing his popularity. His book, Straight from the Heart, was a best-seller.
After Turner's resignation as leader in 1989, Chretien announced he would run
for the party leadership at the June 1990 Liberal leadership convention in
Calgary, Alberta.
Chretien's principal opponent, Paul Martin, was generally seen as the
ideological heir to John Turner, while Chretien was the ideological heir to
Trudeau. A key moment in that race took place at an all-candidates debate in
Montreal, where the discussion quickly turned to the Meech Lake Accord. Martin
attempted to force Chretien to abandon his nuanced position on the deal and
declare for or against it. When Chretien refused to endorse the deal, young
Liberal delegates crowding the hall began to chant "vendu" ("sellout" in French)
and "Judas" at Chretien. Martin continues to state he had nothing to do with the
response from the floor, or a similar outburst by his supporters at the
convention, in which Chretien defeated Martin on the first and only ballot.
However, his reputation in his home province never recovered.
In December, Chretien returned to the House of Commons after winning a by-election
in the safe Liberal riding of Beauséjour, New Brunswick. The incumbent, Fernand
Robichaud, stood down in Chretien's favour, which is traditional practice when a
newly elected party leader doesn't have a seat in Parliament.
Chretien later revealed himself to be as staunchly federalist as Trudeau.
However, he supported the Charlottetown Accord while Trudeau opposed it.
When Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney began to lose ground
in the polls, Chretien was the major beneficiary. In particular, Chretien reaped
a major windfall after Mulroney introduced an unpopular Goods and Services Tax.
Mulroney's approval ratings declined and by 1993, opinion polls showed that his
Conservative Party would almost certainly be defeated by the Liberals under
Chretien in the election due that year. Mulroney announced his retirement in
February, and was succeeded by National Defense Minister Kim Campbell in June.
Campbell managed to pull the Conservatives to within a few percentage points of
the Liberals by the time the writs were dropped in September.
Campbell, however, had little luck overcoming the tremendous antipathy toward
Mulroney, despite a substantial bounce from the leadership convention. Chretien
saw an opportunity, and on September 19, he dropped a bombshell by releasing the
entire Liberal platform. The 112-page document, Creating Opportunity, quickly
became known as the Red Book because of its bright red cover. It was a very
specific and detailed statement of exactly what a Chretien government would do
in office.
The Liberals did not promise to remove the GST altogether as a revenue producing
agent. Instead, the Red Book pledged to replace the GST "with a system that
generates equivalent revenues, is fairer to consumers and to small business,
minimizes disruption to small business, and promotes federal-provincial fiscal
cooperation and harmonization."
Chretien promised to renegotiate of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and
reform to the unemployment insurance system. Above all, he promised to return
Canada to fiscal solvency. As proof, the Red Book gave costs for each of the
Liberals' policy goals — the first time a Canadian party had gone to such
lengths to prove that its proposals were fiscally responsible. In their first
mandate in the 1993 election, they attempted to merge the GST, however most
provinces refused to accept this change after the election. The Conservatives
put forward the idea that Chretien had actually promised to "Scrap the GST"
leading to wide public misperception.
The Red Book gave the Liberals the reputation as the party with ideas, since
none of the other parties had anything comparable. The Liberals quickly surged
to a double-digit lead in most opinion polls. By October, it was obvious that
the Liberals would win at least a minority government. Even at this stage,
however, Chretien's personal approval ratings were far behind those of Campbell.
Realizing this, the Tory campaign team released a series of ads attacking
Chretien. The second ad, released on October 14, appeared to mock Chretien's
facial paralysis, and generated a severe backlash from all sides. Even some Tory
candidates called for the ad to be yanked. Campbell was not directly responsible
for the ad, but ordered it off the air over her staff's objections. However, she
didn't apologize and lost a chance to contain the fallout from the ad.
Chretien, taking advantage of the furor, likening the Tories to the children who
teased him when he was a boy in Shawinigan. "When I was a kid people were
laughing at me," he said at an appearance in Nova Scotia. "But I accepted that
because God gave me other qualities and I'm grateful." The speech, which one
Tory described as one Chretien had waited his whole life to deliver, moved many
in the audience to tears. Chretien's approval ratings shot up, nullifying the
only advantage the Conservatives still had over him. All told, the ad flap all
but assured that the Liberals would win a majority government.
On October 25, the Liberals were elected to an overwhelming majority government,
winning 177 seats — the third-best performance in the Liberals' history, and
their most impressive win since their record of 190 seats in 1949. The Tories
were nearly evicted from the House of Commons, winning only two seats in the
worst defeat ever suffered by a governing party at the federal level. Chretien
himself yielded Beauséjour back to Robichaud in order to run in his old riding,
Saint-Maurice. However, he was unable to lead the Liberals back to their
traditional dominance in Quebec. He was one of only four Liberal MPs elected
from that province outside the Montreal area.
On November 4, 1993, Chretien was appointed by Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn as
prime minister. While Trudeau, Joe Clark and Mulroney had been relative
political outsiders prior to becoming prime minister, Chretien had served in
every Liberal cabinet since 1965. This experience gave him a masterful knowledge
of the Canadian parliamentary system, and allowed Chretien to establish a very
centralized government that, although highly efficient, was also lambasted by
critics as being a "friendly dictatorship" and intolerant of internal dissent.
Chretien turned most of his attention to clearing away the massive debt he had
inherited from the Mulroney / Campbell era. He was assisted by Martin. The
government began a program of deep cuts to provincial transfers and other areas
of government finance. During his tenure as Prime Minister, a $42 billion
deficit was eliminated, five consecutive budget surpluses were recorded, $36
billion in debt was paid down, and taxes were cut by $100 billion (cumulatively)
over 5 years, the largest tax cut in Canadian history.[3] There were, however,
undeniable costs associated with this endeavour. The cuts would result in fewer
government services, most noticeably in the health care sector, as major
reductions in federal funding to the provinces meant significant cuts in service
delivery. Moreover, the across-the- board cuts affected the operations and
achievement of the mandate of most federal departments. Many of the cuts would
be restored in later years of Chretien's period in office.
One of Chretien's main focuses in office was preventing the separation of the
province of Quebec, which was ruled by the separatist Parti Québécois for nearly
the Prime Minister's entire term. After the 1995 referendum very narrowly
defeated a proposal on Quebec sovereignty, the government passed what became
known as the Clarity Act, which said that no Canadian government would
acknowledge a Quebec declaration of independence unless a "clear majority"
supported sovereignty in a referendum based on a "clear question", as defined by
the Parliament of Canada. The size of a "clear majority" was left unspecified,
but the Supreme Court of Canada made it clear that such a majority would not be
"50% plus one vote".
On November 5, 1995, Chretien and his wife escaped injury when André Dallaire,
armed with a knife, broke in the Prime Minister's official residence at 24
Sussex Drive. Aline Chretien shut and locked the bedroom door until security
came. It is said Jean was ready to defend himself with a sharp-edged Inuit
carving.
Taking advantage of the split status of the political right, Chretien easily won
another majority government in 1997.
Chretien was involved in a controversy again in November, 1997, when the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation summit was held on the University of British Columbia
campus in Vancouver. The APEC summit was a summit of many Asian and Pacific
countries, and students on UBC's campus protested the meeting of some of these
leaders because of their poor human rights practices. One of the leaders most
criticized was then Indonesian President Suharto. Demonstrators tore down a
barrier and were pepper-sprayed. Other peaceful demonstrators were subsequently
pepper-sprayed as well. There was debate over whether the action was necessary.
Chretien responded to the media's questions about the incident by saying "For me,
pepper, I put it on my plate." Allegations soon arose that someone in the Prime
Minister's Office or Chretien himself gave the go-ahead for the pepper spraying
of protestors. Chretien denied any involvement.
In 1999, Chretien supported Canada's involvement in NATO's bombing campaign of
Yugoslavia over the issue of Kosovo. The 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia was NATO's and Canada's first deliberate non-defensive
aggression against another sovereign state.
The government under Chretien's prime ministership also introduced a new and far-reaching
Youth Criminal Justice Act, which replaced the old Young Offenders Act, and
changed the way youths were prosecuted for crimes in Canada.
Chretien was known to be friendly in foreign policy towards the People's
Republic of China. He led four "Team Canada" trade missions to China, and
sharply increased the amount of trade between the two countries during his
tenure as Prime Minister. Under his leadership, China and Canada signed several
bilateral relations agreements.
With the Canadian political right still split, Chretien called an early election
in 2000, two years ahead of requirement, winning his third straight mandate.
Following the September 11 terrorist attacks upon the United States, North
American airspace was shut down and many Canadians opened up their homes to
stranded travellers. Chretien praised Operation Yellow Ribbon, saying that it
was one of the ways it showed the best of Canadians in a time of tragedy for
their American friends and neighbours down south. In response to those attacks,
Canadian forces joined with multinational forces that invaded Afghanistan to
pursue al-Qaeda forces there.
President George W. Bush and Jean Chretien address the media before a 2002
bilateral meeting.
Chretien directed the Crown not to support the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. His
reasoning was that the war lacked UN Security Council sanction; while not a
member of the Security Council, Canada nevertheless attempted to build a
consensus for a resolution authorizing the use of force after a short (two to
three month) extension to UN weapon inspections in Iraq. (Critics also noted
that, while in opposition, he had also opposed the first US-led Gulf War.)
Although criticism from right-wing opposition was vocal, the move proved popular
with the Canadian public in general. In December of 2003, it emerged that the
government had prepared plans for Canada to send as many as 800 Canadian troops
to Iraq if the UN Security Council had authorized it; however, a UN request for
an increased deployment of Canadian soldiers to Afghanistan removed this option
from the table. This led some of Chretien's anti-war critics on the left to
accuse the Prime Minister of never really being fully opposed to the war.
Nonetheless, Canada was the first non-member of the US-led coalition to provide
significant financial aid to the post-war reconstruction effort, relative to
Canada's size. This move allowed Canadian companies to bid on reconstruction
contracts.