Chrétien's retirement will end his four-decade long career in Parliament. Chrétien was a great contrast to Trudeau, as he didn't simply show up on the political scene and take the country by surprise; Chrétien was a career politician. He began as the little guy from Shawinigan, and ended up the most powerful person in the Country (save the Queen's technical powers).
His declaration of his future resignation alters the political landscape that has been ever changing over the last year or so. At the last election, Stockwell Day was leader of the Canadian Alliance, Joe Clark of the PC, Alexa McDonough of the NDP. Now, the Alliance has new leader Stephen Harper, Joe Clark has announced that he will step down before the next election and the New Democratic Party are in a leadership campaign.
Chrétien has seen much change during his career. When he was first elected in 1963, Lester Pearson was beginning the age of Liberal domination on the Canadian political scene, only interrupted by the Mulroney and Clark Tory governments.
Chrétien saw Trudeau become Prime Minister like no man had ever become Prime Minister. Chrétien then began his important work in the Liberal Party, as French-Canadian nationalism, a weak brand of nationwide French-Canadian solidarity transformed itself into a strong Québec nationalism and began decades of political crisis between Québec and Ottawa.
As the seventies came to an end, Chrétien began to be a very important name in Canadian politics. He became Minister of Finance in 1977 and when 1980 rolled around, he played an important role in Ottawa's interference in the Québec referendum. And when that threat passed away, he was in charge of bringing the Constitution home, from London to Ottawa as Minister responsible for constitutional negotiations.
When Trudeau stepped down for the second and last time, in 1984, Chrétien ran for the leadership, only to lose to John Turner. Then as the Mulroney years rolled on, Turner left, and in 1990, Chrétien was elected leader of the Liberal Party and became Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.
Mulroney stepped down in 1993 and took with him the glory of the Progressive Conservative Party. Chrétien was made Prime Minister easily, with a great Majority. Then, in 1995, he faced his greatest threat. Another referendum in Québec. After narrowly winning by fractions of a percentile, Federalism was reborn under Chrétien and separatism waned (although its strength is renewed these days). That, and no worthy opposition, led to his re-election in 1997. His government wasn't perfect and had its bouts with corruption, yet the failure to have a healthy opposition party, led to his third majority government despite campaigning without any real platform.
Go To Page: 1 2
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to David Newman's Canadian Culture topic, please visit the Discussions page.