The Shawinigan Fox: How Jean Chrétien Defied the Elites and Reshaped Canada

Bob Plamondon

Description

Jean Chr̩tien's critics have said he was a man with no vision and a short attention span Рa small-town hick who stumbled his way to become Canada's 20th prime minister. Whatever credit the Chr̩tien government deserved was often given to Paul Martin, the heir apparent who was touted to be the brains behind the operation.

But while Chretien was the subject of ridicule, he was quietly giving his competitors – both inside and outside of the Liberal party – a master class in politics, leadership and nation-building.
His decisions, which often ran counter to elite opinion, fundamentally reshaped and strengthened Canada as it entered the 21st century. Chrétien restored sanity to government finances, kept Canada out of the Iraq war, turned a brain drain into a brain gain, and established clarity over national unity.

Relying on new evidence, detailed analysis and exclusive interviews with former cabinet ministers, provincial premiers, political staff, strategists, and high-ranking bureaucrats – many of them speaking publicly for the first time – bestselling author and historian Bob Plamondon tells the surprising inside story of the Chretien years, including: what Chretien would have done if the 1995 referendum had ended in a vote for separation; why Paul Martin secretly threatened to resign in 1995, seven years before he actually quit; who tried to convince Chretien to join the Iraq war and why he could not be intimidated into joining the US-led coalition; why a lifelong Liberal was the most conservative prime minister in Canadian history; the shocking details of the Chretien-Martin feud and the only time an elected Canadian prime minister has been overthrown

Until now, the story of Chretien's time as prime minister has been largely misunderstood. Plamondon sets the record straight and provides compelling lessons about political leadership and problem-solving from a critical chapter in Canadian history.

Sujets

• Political
• Lettres et linguistique
• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 06 octobre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456629083
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

The
Shawinigan
Fox
How Jean Chrétien
Defied the Elites
and Reshaped Canada
 
 
Bob Plamondon

Jean Chrétien’s critics have said he was a man with no vision and a short attention span — a small-town hick who stumbled his way to become Canada’s 20th prime minister. Whatever credit the Chrétien government deserved was often given to Paul Martin, the heir apparent who was touted to be the brains behind the operation.
But while Chretien was the subject of ridicule, he was quietly giving his competitors — both inside and outside of the Liberal party — a master class in politics, leadership and nation building.
His decisions, which often ran counter to elite opinion, fundamentally reshaped and strengthened Canada as it entered the 21st century. Chrétien restored sanity to government finances, kept Canada out of the Iraq war, turned a brain drain into a brain gain, and established clarity over national unity.
Relying on new evidence, detailed analysis and exclusive interviews with former cabinet ministers, provincial premiers, political staff, strategists, and high-ranking bureaucrats – many of them speaking publicly for the first time – bestselling author and historian Bob Plamondon tells the surprising inside story of the Chretien years, including: what Chretien would have done if the 1995 referendum had ended in a vote for separation; why Paul Martin secretly threatened to resign in 1995, seven years before he actually quit; who tried to convince Chretien to join the Iraq war and why he could not be intimidated into joining the US led coalition; why a lifelong Liberal was the most conservative prime minister in Canadian history; the shocking details of the Chretien-Martin feud and the only time an elected Canadian prime minister has been overthrown
Until now, the story of Chretien’s time as prime minister has been largely misunderstood. Plamondon sets the record straight and provides compelling lessons about political leadership and problem-solving from a critical chapter in Canadian history.

Copyright 2017 Bob Plamondon,
All rights reserved.
 
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2908-3
 
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Preface
Despite his electoral record and his success in slaying the deficit, stimulating the economy, fighting back the forces of separatism, and keeping Canada out a disastrous and ill-conceived military conflict, few historians are willing to put Jean Chr é tien on the list of Canada’s great prime ministers.
Historian Michael Bliss wrote that Chr é tien was moderately competent and only moderately corrupt. Author Peter C. Newman described Chrétien’s time in office as a baleful and listless administration — an interregnum — without a defining legacy.
Jean Chr é tien has often been portrayed as a smalltown hick who stumbled his way to the top through luck and persistence. He won three majorities without breaking a sweat because of a civil war within conservative ranks. Chrétien balanced the books on the back of Brian Mulroney’s GST. And it was Mulroney's North American Free Trade Agreement, not Chrétien’s economic policies, that spurred Canadian investment and jobs. Indeed, Chrétien benefited from the very trade deal that he had campaigned against in the 1993 election.
According to Ottawa lore, federal bureaucrats bristled at the simpleton residing at 24 Sussex Drive, a man who was said to govern by slogans and refused to read any memo that was longer than a single page. As English comedians mocked his thick accent, critics in Québec cringed at how he mangled the French language and accused him of selling out to English Canada, calling him Québec’s “Uncle Tom.”
Chrétien, it was widely believed, was incapable of geopolitical insight. Sure, he made the right call in keeping Canada out of the Iraq war, but he did it for the wrong reasons. How was he to know that the Bush administration would ineptly manage Iraq in the aftermath of deposing Saddam Hussein?
Many Liberals gave Paul Martin, rather than Chrétien, credit for the Liberal government’s achievements. Martin was considered the brains behind the operation, the star-prime-minister-in-waiting who was forced to bide his time until his aging predecessor finally surrendered the reins of power. Martin’s strongest supporters were so convinced that he would do a better job that they ultimately launched a mutiny against Chrétien.
An in-depth analysis of Chr é tien’s performance shows that lurking beneath his plain-spoken manner and folksy charm were a deep intelligence, strong leadership skills, and highly tuned political instincts. Chr é tien may not have articulated a grand vision, but he focused on what mattered to Canadians in their day-to-day lives. He fixed intractable problems, some of which had persisted for generations, and he made difficult and sometimes controversial decisions that time has proven to be prescient.
Following the near-loss in the 1995 Québec referendum, Chrétien changed the rules of the separation game. At the time, few thought the passage of the Clarity Act would end well. Many in Chrétien’s cabinet were frozen by fear and anxiety. The separatists initially rejoiced at the provocation and the new legal path that Chrétien had given them to fulfill their ambitions. In hindsight, however, the Clarity Act has been revealed as a powerful stroke. When Chrétien left office, the country was more united than it had been in 50 years.
Under Chrétien, Canada went from a fiscal basket case to an international role model in economic management. As Canada’s most fiscally conservative prime minister, he fundamentally shrank government and paid down debt. And it was not a quick fix. Once Chrétien balanced the books, the federal government rattled off 11 consecutive surpluses. The credit has often gone to Paul Martin, but it was Chrétien who did the heavy lifting in cabinet and who actively managed the public accounts. Government investments, when they came, turned a brain-drain into a brain-gain. On international trade, Chrétien happily played the role of Canada’s salesman-in-chief.
Those who pressured Chrétien to send Canadian troops to Iraq in 2003 to depose the tyrant Saddam Hussein — including the president of the United States, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, the Canadian business establishment, the official Opposition, and senior members of his cabinet — found that the prime minister could not be intimidated. He defied expectations by staying out of the war, a move that saved lives and put Canada on the right side of history.
Chretien was an intuitive politician who made few mistakes in his 40 years of public service. Controversies, such as the sponsorship scandal, were rare. Little of what Chretien did for Canada has been undone by his successors.
There is much to learn from Chrétien’s leadership style and his approach to the issues. Despite coming to office with more experience around the cabinet table than any of his predecessors, Chrétien had few pre-determined policy prescriptions. His brand of populism was anything but superficial, rooted more in optimism than fear and more in strengthening public institutions than taking them down. He understood that confident citizens invested in themselves and their future.
Chrétien resisted ideology and wisely evolved his thinking and positions over time. He trusted that the people of Canada would almost always point him in the right direction. And while he stood up for the underdog and the disadvantaged, he was no bleeding heart.
He made Canadians laugh and feel good about the country. Chrétien took his job more seriously than he did himself. He did not get mired in detail and managed only those issues that cut across departments, such as government finances and national unity. He had a knack for boiling down issues to their essence. His need for order and timeliness was legendary, which he connected with his inclination to be decisive. Chrétien’s restriction on memo length, he said, was only a problem for those who didn’t know what they were talking about. For a man who was thought to be flippant, he was as clever and cunning as a fox.
Paul Martin, meanwhile, was widely thought to be the Liberal party’s strongest asset, the consigliere who steered Chr é tien toward fiscal rectitude, the star attraction at many campaign events. In a period when Chr é tien faced few challenges from the opposition, journalists often cast their eyes forward to when Martin would eventually replace Chrétien, predicting sweeping majority governments and a time of great change and opportunity.
What they overlook is that it was Martin who wobbled at times on spending cuts, failed to speak out against the Iraq war, was jittery about critical national unity matters, and irresolute about major policy decisions. Martin did little that was not examined through the lens of his ambition to replace Chr é tien as prime minister.
Enough time has passed to allow for a thorough assessment of this critical time in Canadian history, when the country avoided financial ruin, faced major foreign policy choices, and survived a national unity crisis. Time has also liberated those who were closest to the action — the cabinet ministers, political staff, strategists, high-ranking bureaucrats, and provincial premiers who were interviewed for this book — to speak their minds and reveal the secrets of what happened behind the scenes, including the feud between Chrétien and Martin.
“Goddamn Chrétien”
In the final few days before the 1995 federal budget, Paul Martin was angry enough to seriously consider resigning as finance minister. He pulled industry minister John Manley and trade ministe