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Create AccountOn a balmy late-December afternoon, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was in conversation with Macleans at his official residence when the telephone rang for the second time. Gesturing to an aide to silence the call, Chrétien said: "Push 'Do Not Disturb.' " The aide hit the button, exclaiming: "Ah, DND.
There was not much time during Jean Chrétien's dash-in, dash-out visit to Cuba to get a long look at the physical and spiritual rubble of Fidel Castro's revolution.
The word was out well in advance of last week's cabinet shuffle that the heavy lifters - Finance Minister Paul Martin and Health Minister Allan Rock - were keeping their old jobs.
By the standards he set during his street-brawling youth in Shawinigan, it was not much of a rout.
Sometimes, in the life of a prime minister, it is possible to travel halfway around the world - and still face reminders of the problems you thought you had left at home.
On the weekend before he planned to shuffle his cabinet, Jean Chrétien was tired but in a teasing mood.
As he prepared to deal with mounting criticism of his government's handling of national unity issues and last week's cabinet shuffle, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien spoke to Ottawa Editor Anthony Wilson-Smith.
Alexander Mackenzie, 2nd prime minister of Canada 1873–78, stonemason, building contractor, author, insurance executive (born 28 January 1822 in Logierait, Scotland; died 17 April 1892 in Toronto, ON).
No one doubts the sincerity of Jean Chrétien's unabashed, if sometimes hokey, expressions of love for Canada. His years as prime minister may best be remembered for ending the spiral of deficit spending by federal governments, but Chrétien has always envisaged leaving a less actuarial legacy.
FROM THE MOMENT it was announced a year ago, the Gomery commission of inquiry into rampant abuse of sponsorship programs seemed custom-designed to reveal the worst aspects of Jean CHRÉTIEN's tenure as prime minister.
There had to be a better way for Paul Martin to quell the jitters in that band of Liberal supporters who can't wait for him to become top dog in the pound.
The message seemed as clear as a sign on the door: in this fight, at least, anglophones need not apply.
In his first eight years as prime minister, Jean CHRÉTIEN didn't exactly dazzle when it came to foreign policy. But in 2002 all that was supposed to change: this would be the year he made his international mark.
Jean CHRÉTIEN has always looked back at his six years as minister of INDIAN affairs with an equal measure of fondness and something resembling regret. He has called his work from 1968 to 1974 among the most satisfying of his career.
Say this for Jean Chrétien: for a man considered cautious in character, he delivered one of the most important - and predictable - announcements of his life in utterly unpredictable fashion.
Charles Joseph “Joe” Clark, PC, CC, journalist, author, 16th prime minister of Canada 1979-80, (born 5 June, 1939 at High River, AB). Clark was Canada's youngest prime minister when he took office one day before his 40th birthday. His brief term put a temporary end to 16 years of Liberal rule. He later gained respect as a senior minister in the Progressive Conservative government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, especially on the international stage.
The Native People’s Caravan was a cross-country mobile protest that took place in 1974. Its main purpose was to raise awareness about the poor living conditions and discrimination experienced by Indigenous peoples in Canada. It travelled from Vancouver to Ottawa, where the subsequent occupation of a vacant warehouse on Victoria Island, near Parliament Hill, extended into 1975. The caravan brought various Indigenous groups together in protest of broken treaties, as well as a lack of government-supported education, housing and health care. As a result, meetings between Cabinet ministers and Indigenous leaders became more frequent. The protest is remembered as an important turning point in Indigenous activism in Canada.
“Let me tell you, my fellow countrymen, that all the signs point this way, that the 20th century shall be the century of Canada and Canadian development.… For the next 100 years, Canada shall be the star towards which all men who love progress and freedom shall come.” — Prime Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier speaking at Toronto’s Massey Hall on 14 October 1904.
