Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien (Canadian French: [ʒɑ̃ kʁetsjẽɪ̯̃]; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian lawyer and former politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from 1993 to 2003. He served as leader of the Liberal Party from 1990 to 2003 and as leader of the Official Opposition from 1990 to 1993.
Born and raised in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, Chrétien studied law at Université Laval. A Liberal, he was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1963 federal election. Chrétien served in various cabinet posts in the governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre Trudeau, most notably as the minister of Indian affairs and northern development, president of the Treasury Board, minister of finance, and minister of justice. In the last role, Chrétien played a key role in the patriation of the Constitution of Canada and the establishment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Chrétien ran for the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1984, placing second to John Turner. He then served as deputy prime minister in Turner's short-lived government, which was defeated in the 1984 federal election. Chrétien briefly left politics in 1986 amid tensions with Turner and began working in the private sector. After the Liberals were defeated again in 1988, he returned to politics and won the leadership of the party in 1990, and became leader of the Official Opposition. Chrétien led the Liberal Party to a majority government in the 1993 federal election. He led the Liberals to two additional majorities in 1997 and 2000.
Chrétien became prime minister as Canada was on the brink of a debt crisis due to the country's unsustainable budget deficit. Adhering to a centrist Third Way approach, his government produced a series of austerity budgets which sharply reduced spending and reformed various programs, resulting in a budget surplus in 1997—Canada's first in nearly three decades. The latter half of Chrétien's tenure recorded consecutive budget surpluses which were primarily used to fund tax cuts and pay down government debt. In national unity issues, Chrétien strongly opposed the Quebec sovereignty movement and led the federalist campaign to a narrow victory in the 1995 Quebec referendum. He then launched a federal sponsorship program to promote Canada in Quebec and pioneered the Clarity Act, which established the conditions for future referendums on secession. Chrétien also enacted environmental legislation, including an updated Environmental Protection Act and the Species at Risk Act. He created the long-gun registry, privatized the Canadian National Railway, and introduced the harmonized sales tax (HST). After his election victory in 2000, he oversaw Operation Yellow Ribbon in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, enacted the Youth Criminal Justice Act, and laid the groundwork for the legalization of same-sex marriage. In foreign policy, Chrétien's government signed the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and spearheaded the Ottawa Treaty, which aimed to ban anti-personnel landmines worldwide. He authorized military intervention during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and the War in Afghanistan, and opposed participation in the Iraq War.
Although his popularity and that of the Liberal Party were seemingly unchallenged for three consecutive federal elections, Chrétien became subject to several controversies. He was accused of corruption in the Shawinigate and sponsorship scandals, although he has consistently denied any wrongdoing. He also became embroiled in a prolonged leadership struggle within the Liberal Party against his finance minister and long-time political rival Paul Martin. In December 2003, amid pressure from the pro-Martin faction of the party and the threat of losing a leadership review, Chrétien resigned as prime minister and retired from politics. He is Canada's fifth longest-serving prime minister, and ranks highly in rankings of Canadian prime ministers. At age 92, Chrétien is the oldest living former Canadian prime minister.
Early life, family, and education
Chrétien was born on January 11, 1934, in Shawinigan Falls, Quebec, as the 18th of 19 children (10 of whom did not survive infancy), of Marie (née Boisvert, 1892–1954) and Wellie Chrétien (1887–1980). His younger brother is the neuroendocrinology researcher Michel Chrétien. The working-class Chrétien family was poor, and Chrétien had to wear hand-me-down clothes. Chrétien's parents wanted their children to escape a working-class life in Shawinigan by attending a classical college. Chrétien's father made him read the dictionary as a young boy. Chrétien's older brother Maurice won a scholarship at the insurance company he was working for, which allowed him to attend medical school, and with the profits from his medical practice, was able to assist his younger siblings to attend the classical colleges. Wellie Chrétien was a staunch Liberal who once got to shake hands as a young man with his hero, Sir Wilfrid Laurier. The local parish priest, Father Auger, a supporter of the Union Nationale who hated all Liberals as "ungodly", spread malicious rumours about the Liberal Chrétien family, saying he would never let a teenage girl go on a date unchaperoned with any of the Chrétien boys, which caused the young Jean Chrétien to have troubled relations with the Catholic church.
During World War II, the Canadian nationalist Wellie Chrétien had attracted much public disapproval by being a staunch supporter of the war effort, and especially by being one of the few French-Canadians in Shawinigan willing to publicly support sending the conscripts (known as "Zombies") to fight overseas. Under the 1940 National Resources Mobilization Act, the federal government could conscript Canadians only for the defence of Canada, and until late 1944, only volunteers went to fight overseas. In 1940s Quebec, where many French-Canadians were opposed to Canada fighting in the war, and especially to sending the "Zombies" overseas, this made Wellie Chrétien and his family outcasts. Furthermore, during the Grande Noirceur ("Great Darkness") when Quebec society was dominated by the corrupt Union Nationale patronage machine, the Chrétien family were excluded because of Wellie Chrétien's support for the war. The Union Nationale Premier Maurice Duplessis had been an outspoken opponent of Canadian participation in World War II. Until 1964, Quebec had no public schools, and Chrétien was educated in Catholic schools. Chrétien disliked the Catholic priests who educated him and in turn was disliked by them with one of Chrétien's former teachers, Father François Lanoue, recalling that Chrétien was the only student he ever grabbed by his ears, as he was too unruly. In an interview, Chrétien called his education "unnatural", as he recalled an extremely strict regime where the priests beat anyone bloody who dared to question their authority while teaching via rote learning. One of Chrétien's classmates recalled "We didn't have the right to have feelings or express them".
Chrétien got his early schooling at a private boys' school in Joliette. He then attended Séminaire Saint-Joseph de Trois-Rivières. He obtained excellent grades and then studied law at Université Laval, the training ground of the French-Canadian elite. Despite the thuggish image that he cultivated at Séminaire Saint-Joseph, Chrétien's grades were high, with an education that focused mostly on Catholic theology, the classics, philosophy, and French. When Chrétien graduated from Séminaire Saint-Joseph, Duplessis came to address the class and upon meeting Chrétien asked him if his grandfather was François Chrétien, who once served as mayor of St-Étiene-des-Grès, and if his father was Wellie Chrétien. Upon receiving affirmative answers to both questions, the premier said with disgust, "Then you're a damn rouge".
Later at Laval, Chrétien protested the fact that the law faculty gave the Revised Statutes of Quebec free to Union Nationale students while Liberal students had to pay $10 for it, which led him and another student whose family was well connected to meet Duplessis in his office. Duplessis told Chrétien the Union Nationale only rewarded those who had "faith", and if he wanted the book for free, then he should have had "faith", noting that there were no "rights" in Quebec as he was "Le Chef" ("the boss"). At Laval, Chrétien became active in the Young Liberals, becoming president as no one else wanted the job as most students were too frightened to antagonize the Union Nationale. In 1958 he attended the Liberal convention in Ottawa that chose Lester Pearson as the party's leader, and where Chrétien supported Paul Martin Sr.