In 1991, with his party low in the polls, Jean Chretien convened a thinkers conference in Aylmer, Que. Among other things, his party,which had just campaigned against free trade — losing big to Brian Mulroney — had to come to grips with free trade. The Aylmer conference helped Liberals do that and come up with some other forward-looking ideas that found their way into the famous “Red Book” that Chretien would use in the 1993 campaign to win a crushing majority against Mulroney's successor Kim Campbell.
This weekend, Liberals are gathering in Montreal for the heir to that Aylmer event, dubbed “Canada at 150” and Chretien was on hand again, this time as a party elder. He was asked by reporters on his way into the event this morning about that event in Aylmer.
“When you're in opposition, you're in opposition and your goal is to form a government. So it's the same situation that it was for me and it was for Mike Pearson. We want to prepare the party to take over … and offer something that is very in tune with the times.”
Stephen Harper's Conservatives are already belittling this “thinkers” conference, calling it the “spenders” conference. Chretien had some thoughts about that.
“When I see the Conservatives, they are always the same. They are for balancing the budget but they got us in debt. I remember making fun of President Reagan. President Reagan defeated President Carter because it was awful that Carter had a $50 billion deficit. And President Reagan reduced it — to $250 billion. So it's always the same: Between their talk and their doing, there is always a big gap.
“We turned the finances of the country. We put the Canadians into surplus. Who had us in debt again? Again it is the Conservatives who left me with $42 billion deficit, representing 6.2 per cent of GDP. It's always the same thing.”
Did Aylmer help? “It was good for me. It was very useful for us. You can be drifting sometimes. And there's a change in leadership. A change in the membership of the party and sometimes, it's not bad to sit back and say, wait a minute, where are we going? And it's what they're doing.
“There's a lot of factors to win an election. [Aylmer] was not the only thing but it was one element. There was [voter] fatigue. When they picked Madame Campbell [to succeed Mulroney as leader of the Progressive Conservatives], I called my caucus — some nervous Nellies — and I started to say, she has a summer job, she is a shooting star and we turned it around. Politics is very unpredictable. But you have to be ready to be the alternative when the opportunity comes.”
My friend Roger Smith of CTV then asked: “So what do the Liberals have to do now?”
“Their best,” Chretien said, and turned and headed inside the conference room.
THE LEGEND! Jean is a national treasure.
Am I the only one who thinks its slightly ironic that the Liberal party is going to leaders-past for ideas on how to rejuvenate their policy platform? I mean, are they REALLY interested in what Stephan Dion has to say? Or Jean Chretiens ideas for raising funds for the Liberal Party of Toronto?
“the Conservatives who left me with $42 billion deficit”
And the Liberals left Mulroney a $39 billion deficit. Adjusted for inflation that means Mulroney almost cut the deficit in half. Chretien should be careful citing facts when they most of the facts reflect poorly on Liberals.
Watching Chrétien talk politics is like watching Messier play hockey: he ain't the smoothest the guy out there but he plays with clarity and grit. And because of that approach, he almost always wins.
“What do the Liberals have to do?” “Their best.” Of course. He has said nothing and everything at once.
There is my proof, to borrow a phrase.
Considering that this is the guy who was in charge of the decade of disaster that put the LPC into the Narnia from whence it tries to recover, and incidentally is also the guy who pretty much singlehandedly destroyed its electoral position in the most public spending scandal in Canadian history, it's a bit rich for him to dismiss the entire debacle with, “their best”.
Posted: March 26, 2010
Don Martin http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/03/26/don-martin-liberals-bring-out-the-dead-in-search-of-new-life.aspx#ixzz0jNz2aGdH
“… With an almost audible door creak, the Liberals began their search for a future in power by throwing open the family crypt. …”
Chretien is just one of many Quebec hacks who have destroyed any hope of Canada ever being a nation. No common culture. No common language. No common vision. No common protection under the law.
Now Quebec, it is a nation. The sooner it leaves or is removed, the sooner Canada can achieve its own nation-hood.
Frankly, Canada would be best to just join the United States.
Especially as we now offer our citizens of all social ranks superior health-care.