By Senator Colin Kenny
Before I do something unfashionable -promote Jean Chrétien as a worthy prime minister who deserves a much better fate than to be hounded out of office - let me get the toady thing out of the way.
I am not a PMO toady. The Prime Minister has never applauded my efforts to push the government into a more effective stance against tobacco addicition among young Canadians, nor by my efforts to get the government to spend more money on national security. No-one from the Prime Minister’s office has ever tried to twist my arm to support him.
I am speaking in support of the Prime Minister because I see the current campaign to oust Mr. Chrétien as detrimental to both the Liberal Party of Canada and to a healthy Canadian political forum.
Let me ask three basic questions: (a) What shape is the country in under Jean Chretien’s leadership? (b) What shape in Jean Chrétien in? (c) Who is trying to oust him, and what legitimacy fuels their challenge?
(a) Canada is in good shape. Of course there are problems that need attention, particularly now that the country has some financial breathing room after a decade of tough (and effective) deficit-fighting. But overall, Canada is the envy of the world. The country is running surpluses that other nations have been unable to sustain, analysts’ growth predictions outstrip the rest of the industrialized world, and after decades of angst, the threat of Quebec separation has ceased to drain the country’s energies. These were all scary issues for Canadians when Jean Chrétien took power, and his government, whatever its perceived disappointments, dealt with these scary issues successfully.
(b) Jean Chrétien is in good shape - the kind of shape we would all like to be in. He is 68 years old - a child’s age for leaders in those parts of the world where age brings respect. Physically, he hasn’t lost a step. Mentally, his syntax may be as mangled as ever in both official languages, but the guy has never been stupid or doddering, and he isn’t now.
(c) The Liberal Party of Canada should be in dandy shape, but prosperity seems to be breeding an new kind of self-destructiveness that has always been anathema to Liberals. What is driving the dump-Chrétien movement is not any controversy over ideas. Within the Liberal Party, the movement is being driven by wounded egos. The message coming from Mr. Chrétien’s detractors within the party seems to be this: “You are in. I am out. I am tired of being out. Move over and let me in.” That’s hardly what I would call a principled call to arms, but the media - bored by Mr. Chrétien’s string of political successes - is happy to join the chorus that the Prime Minister should shuffle off to Shawinigan because he has outlived his usefulness. Never mind if he is exactly the same leader whose government has just scored huge successes over the economic scourge of deficit financing and the political scourge of separatism.
Some years ago I, in the company of a few friends, was treated to a personal lecture from former Progressive Conservative Leader Robert Stanfield on the institutional importance of both the Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties, and the important of retaining their integrity and effectiveness in the service of Canadians. Mr. Stanfield spoke with as much reverence for the Liberal Party as he did for his own party, and he admonished us to nurture and sustain these great institutions. He systematically ticked off a long list of initatives that had emerged from these core political parties, and pointed out how they had moved the country along economically, philosophically and spiritually. It was a riveting dissertation as to the importance of these parties - both so representative of the broad mainstream of Canadian thinking, - to the future of the country.
Since then the Progressive Conservative party has been ruined by a rump group whose egos got in the way of sustaining sufficient unity to present a legitimate alternative to the governing Liberals whenever the electorate demanded an alternative. The Canadian Alliance blames Joe Clark for not stepping down and allowing his party to fold itself into the Alliance, but the Alliance is not an alternative for most Canadians. The Progressive Conservatives Party was, and it has been wrecked.
Now a Liberal rump group, also flying the noble banner of ego, has decided that the second Canadian political institution that Mr. Stanfield held sacred should indulge in a bout of fratricide. Why is this happening? Because Jean Chrétien has governed Canada into a terrible hole? Au contraire. Because Jean Chrétien is worn out and needs to be replaced? Not that I can see.
Blood sport is getting in the way of good governance. Yes, one might argue that it could be better governance. Perhaps, now that the books are in order, it will make sense to tackle some issues that haven’t received sufficient attention over the past decade. But let us put Mr. Chrétien to that challenge. He has earned the right to take his performance to another level. Nobody else has earned anything close.
Colin Kenny has been active in the Liberal Party since 1968 serving ten years with Prime Minister Trudeau and has been a Member of the Senate since 1984. He can be reached via email at kennyco@sen.parl.gc.ca