OTTAWA — At age 91, Jean Chrétien is still on the road, campaigning for his party.
The former prime minister says he has travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario to ask voters to re-elect the Liberals for a fourth mandate.
On a rainy Saturday afternoon, Chrétien was in downtown Ottawa beating the drums for incumbent MP Yasir Naqvi, with dozens of soaked supporters hanging on to every word.
“I will tell you how I became a Liberal,” he started by saying.
As a student, he said he went with his classmates to visit the premier of Quebec at the time, Maurice Duplessis, who attended the same boys’ school as him in Trois-Rivières.
When it was his turn to meet Duplessis, he said the premier shook his hand and asked for his name. He said Duplessis correctly guessed Chrétien was from Shawinigan.
“Your father was Willie Chrétien,” said Duplessis.
“Yes, Mr. Duplessis,” nodded Chrétien.
“Your grandfather was François Chrétien, mayor of Saint-Étienne-des-Grès,” said Duplessis. Chrétien said he acquiesced once more.
“’You’re a
maudit Rouge
. You’re a goddamned Red’, he said,” recounted Chrétien.
“I’m still a Red, I’m still a Liberal, and I’m still winning the election.”
Chrétien, who won three consecutive majority governments between 1993 and 2003, is now confident Liberal Leader Mark Carney will be able to match his past victories.
“Monday is going to be a Liberal sunshine day,” Chrétien told the wet crowd.
He noted that only a few months ago, observers were predicting a crushing defeat for the Liberals. Chrétien joked he was afraid he would have to buy flowers for the occasion.
“Now, I will use the flowers anyway on Monday to celebrate the majority government of the Liberal party,” he said.
Carney has been careful to not use the word “majority,” but his foreign affairs minister
Melanie Joly clearly called for a majority government
during a rally last week in Quebec.
Carney has instead been asking for a “strong” or a “clear” mandate from voters.
Speaking to National Post, Chrétien said he first realized his party could rise back from the ashes during the leadership convention that saw Carney become leader.
“He was the man of the occasion,” he said. “Just the fact that he got 86 per cent of the vote was an indication that people who had the right to vote realized that he was their person.”
Chrétien was a guest speaker at the convention and was already noticing that Canadians were becoming more united in the face of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats.
On Saturday, Chrétien said that sentiment persisted during his travels out east.
“I’m very happy with the mood that I’ve discovered,” he said. “We have never been so united. We should say thank you to Mr. Trump.”
Like he did during the leadership convention, Chrétien joked that he wanted to propose Trump for the Order of Canada for the services rendered to the country.
“But I was told that I would fail,” he said. “We don’t give the Order of Canada to someone who has a criminal record.”
Chrétien had kind words for Carney, whom he described as the epitome of the Canadian dream.
In his speech, he described him as the son of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories — “a lot deeper than Shawinigan” — who went on to serve as governor of two central banks.
“Imagine, the Brits came to take a Canadian from Fort Smith to become the governor of the bank,” he said.
“And suddenly, he is available to us.”
After the speech, Chrétien complimented Carney on his campaign to reporters.
“He’s done well for somebody who is in politics for the first time. He did very well, he kept his calm, he did not make mistakes — or very small mistakes,” he said.
“You guys, you are just looking for that at times, but it is your job like I do my job.”
Carney notably apologized to candidate and gun-control activist Nathalie Provost for mispronouncing her last name and for naming the wrong university where she was shot.
And this week, Carney admitted that
Trump talked about the 51st state during their call last month
, despite saying publicly that the president had “respected Canada’s sovereignty.”
Chrétien was asked if Justin Trudeau made the right choice by announcing he would be stepping down as leader.
“It was the right decision for him to make, and it turned out to be very good,” he said.
“It was change that was very timely.”
After campaigning for the Liberals in four different provinces, Chrétien said he is ready to relax a bit. But he promised Naqvi he would be back in future elections should he need him.
“I will come back to support you when I will be 100.”
National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com
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