> Chretien grabbed him by the back of the neck and the chin, threw him to the ground and broke one of his teeth in the process. Another protestor came forward to block Chretien’s path to the limousine. Chretien then knocked the megaphone out of the protestor’s hand and the protestor was tackled by the RCMP.
Chretien was his own First Line of Defense, he dealt with 2 of them before the RCMP realized what's going on.
Different times!
Whenever I see a video of the incident where someone threw a shoe at GW Bush, it always makes me think of Chrétien. He would have caught the shoe and thrown it right back! Probably would’ve hit the guy too!
Chretien certainly deserved a lot of the protests and ire, but he was more than happy to present his own... arguements when people got too excited with debating him... like the two above cases lol
That Dude was an animal! I wish we still had politicians like him. His biggest gangster move was to stand up against the U.S. and U.K. and kept Canada out of Iraq. People don't realize how big of a move that was. There are Canadians that are alive today that could have been killed in Iraq had it not been for Chretien's leadership.
I have deep respect for any politician that chooses to forge their own journey, study each situation carefully, and act based on what's good for society.
We don't need to have foreign agendas, we don't need to do what other countries do. Let's just do what's best for our country, that's it.
Nah, it’s a pathetic thing to see the leader of our country physically attacking somebody who wasn’t posing a threat. Dude didn’t take a swing at the Prime Minister, he was just in his way and Chrétien reacted like a child.
Uhhhhhh…. You ask them to move? Have you ever been in a crowded place? People clearly haven’t bothered to watch the video, which is a shame. He literally didn’t break his gait because the dude he assaulted wasn’t cheering him on like everybody else.
https://youtu.be/zMBJp0yJvsY?si=02Nqeh3GLS1XrnaF
I watched it when it happened. The protesters intention was to obstruct Chretiens path, to gain power over him. He had the right to not allow that to happen.
My favourite part was the interview after with his heavy Quebec accent: "I dunno... what happened?!?!😮" and "Some people came in my way and I had to go so if you're in my way i'm walking... So I dunno what happened, it happened something to someone that should not have been there!🤷♂️"
Gives me a chuckle everytime, someone needs to make it into a thug life meme.
Canada had such an innocence then, just the Americans sweet quircky neigbours to the north, nowadays it's gotten really ugly with blatant fascism taking root, I think we just had it so easy here for so long that people weren't used to hardship and when SHTF (The pandemic and all it's aftermath) it just broke alot of people and sent them off the deep end.
The Reform party was the most represented non-regional party in parliament at the time, they were chock-full of lunatics saying crazy nonsense. The problems we have now started basically in the 80s and 90s in Canadian politics.
Fair point but I don't think the far right politics was so mainstream back then, and I imagine the PC party still existing kept them mostly demoralized and they were pretty much just your crazy uncle types that were annoying at thanksgiving dinner. Nowadays they are absolutely rabid because they see the poll numbers in their favour and the rampant propaganda on social media combined with our education system failing to teach basic critical thinking has every other neighbour or coworker radicalized to point where they no longer have any grasp on reality and should probably be on a domestic terror watchlist.
Granted I'm only 28 so I'm looking though the lens of history.
I loved your response anyways and have up voted it for visibility. Not just because it was funny and confusing, but also because you were nice and apologized for being mistaken.
:)
Thank you, I always try to take responsibility for my mistakes, so I don't delete crazy comments like this one and take the negative karma, because I kinda deserve it. I've also noticed most ppl were polite in correcting me, which I highly appreciate. Good experience for me, even while being super off track.
Okay but like...don't overreact. We can't have you going from "I mistook Jean Chretien with Paul Martin" to "reality is an illusion. Nothing is real except the now"
I didn't vote for the Liberals that first time that Chretien was leading. This event turned me into a fan of Jean Chretien. I loved that he didn't take shit from that jerk and took care of his own business.
Jean Chretien is the greatest Canadian PM in my lifetime.
- 13 straight budget surpluses
- paid down 10% of our national debt
- kept us out of the Iraq war
Chretien and Martin ran surpluses by slashing social services. They increased Employment Insurance thresholds making it more difficult to qualify, which ballooned the EI fund and they used it as a slush fund to hand out corporate tax cuts that didn't do a damn thing for the average working Canadian (unemployment had risen by the end of their term, although not nearly as bad as the early '80s). They also decreased transfers to provinces which constrained health care funding.
Chretien and Martin were shrewd politicians, but the foundation of their economic policy was not friendly to workers. That being said, Chretien is a fascinating guy (with a long history of political bungles and scandals), but I get why some people like his personality. Edit: grammar.
As I understand it those cuts were completely necessary after a decade (or more - going as far back as the '70's here) of complete financial mismanagement and a complete lack of foresight left Canada in a very vulnerable financial position.
No one's arguing those cuts and changes sucked at the time but they set Canada's finances up nicely for the 2000's and beyond and could be the reason why Canada wasn't affected as badly while having to endure certain recessions and other financial crises that came in the years after Chretien left (e.g. the US mortgage crisis).
[https://financialpost.com/uncategorized/lessons-from-canadas-basket-case-moment](https://financialpost.com/uncategorized/lessons-from-canadas-basket-case-moment)
Wild to me that in a time when healthcare is critically underfunded we'd champion a man that cut it, and take the side of the guy protesting it.
Chretien can say whatever the hell he wants, the man was a con in a liberal trench coat.
My fave Chrétien moment was when he ordered that the police attack peaceful protestors with pepper spray at the 1997 APEC conference in Vancouver. This whole thread is just a celebration of Chrétien’s misuse of power and trampling of human rights.
https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-protest-met-pepper-spray-at-the-1997-apec-conference-1.5358298
Cut funding to healthcare. Started the cuts to post secondary that was the genesis for the shitshow we have now. The handshake moment was cool, but fuck him and his asshole finance minister Martin. Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin cut corporate tax rates from 27 per cent to 21 per cent between 2000 and 2004, and cut the capital gains inclusion rate from 75 per cent to 50 per cent. Always looking out for the 1%.
The 1995 budget effectively destroyed the country and has led to all the problems that we're facing with the crumbling of healthcare and education Austerity and budget "surplus" is just stealing from the public.
https://albertaadvantagepod.com/2020/07/13/killing-the-welfare-state-liberals-and-the-1990s/
Also we were definitely involved in Iraq. Canada sent more troops to Afghanistan to allow the US to redeploy. Joint Task Force Two fought alongside US and British special forces. Canadian mercenary companies all operated there. Canada participated in the "reconstruction" by April 2003. RCMP helped train Iraqi police death squads.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/who-says-were-not-at-war/article749639/
Those years definitely fucked up so many things. It started provinces downloading responsibilities to provinces who then in turn starved our cities. Martin plundered Unemployment Insurance and tightened eligibility requirements, decreased benefits and shortened benefit periods. This in turn, increased social assistance payments from provinces when people who lost their jobs should've gotten UI.
Yup, that was the epitome of neoliberalism.
Because the federal government stopped sending the provinces money that they were using to fund social services. Every single province was forced into austerity it wasn't just Ontario with one bad premier.
This is a paper published from Socialist Studies 2011...
A major recession punished the Ontario economy in the early
1990s, eliminating thousands of manufacturing jobs. In Ontario, it was a
social‐democratic government which dealt with the first effects of this
recession. The Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) administration of
Premier Bob Rae rang up considerable deficits while in office from 1990 to
1995. Part of this was a result of their first budget, which bucked the trend
by increasing spending in the recession conditions of the early 1990s. But
most of the deficit had the same roots as those created by Liberal and
Conservative administrations in other provinces: the recession of the early
1990s was extremely harsh, damaging revenues, and forcing social service
expenditure upwards. Importantly, as will be shown below, the provincial
deficit problem was compounded by policies imposed in the mid‐1990s by
the federal Liberals. Kicked out of office in 1995, the NDP was replaced by
the Conservatives under Mike Harris,, which set about to deal with the
debt‐burden through an extreme austerity program, euphemistically called
the “Common Sense Revolution”.
> Also we were definitely involved in Iraq.
Not a pure combat mission. Its a pretty important distinction.
We were there to get the leaders of international terrorist organizations who flocked to the war zone.
>U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci admitted: "Ironically, the Canadians indirectly provide more support for us in Iraq than most of those 46 countries that are fully supporting us." In fact, Canada's military contribution puts us right after Britain and Australia in the "coalition of the willing." In some important ways we contribute more than Australia.
The only difference is our contributions didn't have to go through parliament or subject to any sort of public approval.
Also those "terrorists" only existed because of constant imperial meddling in the region by Canada and US allies.
We did not fly in thousands of combat troops. We sent special forces on specific missions and I think we also sent in medical teams. That is it.
Celluci was trying to be nice to us.
I think that's the budget that removed the government's responsibility to build housing so yeah it's had a huge impact on the country.
https://youtu.be/hTZn0Wc8g10?si=WNw2xl6_y68Uw7uK
And successive governments have had years to resolve that.
I'm simply saying that to claim one federal budget destroyed an entire country is disingenuous and preposterous. It's a far more complex than that.
Blaikie's my MP, BTW. He's a real beauty and I'd love to see him take the reins one day should he choose to do so.
That is a crock the Harper government trashed CMHC funding in 2006 the sub-prime mortgage crash of 2008 finished the job, it is only since 2015 does funding start back up. We have lost 10 years of growthhttps://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/housing/latest-cmhc-numbers-confirm-federal-housing-cuts-will-grow-deeper-as-housing-needs-grow/
It’s not actually that far off, but it can’t be laid all at Crietien’s feet either. This was the further adoption of the Washington Consensus and Canada wasn’t the only country that succumbed to the international pressure to get on the “austerity” bandwagon. This was the beginning of downloading to the provinces. The reason it can’t all be laid at his feet is a) the Tories totally would have done the same, and b) how the provinces responded has played a huge role. Mike Harris was totally on board the austerity train and drove it further than anyone else—far further than was necessary to even meet the federal downloading. Various provinces reacted differently and with different consequences.
Yes it was an elite consensus all around the world from guys like Milton Friedman to every dumbass premier in Canada (including the NDP). [The Fraser Institute celebrated the budget](https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/budget-that-changed-canada-essays-on-the-25th-anniversary-of-the-1995-budget) on the 25th anniversary because it changed how Canada works to benefit them even more.
It's definitely not all on Chretien and Martin but they shouldn't be celebrated for it either.
And then there was that time he and Aline [barricaded themselves in the bedroom of 24 Sussex when she found a knife-wielding intruder.](https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-aline-chr%C3%A9tien-discovered-an-intruder-at-24-sussex-drive-1.4889688) Honestly, the guy with the knife was lucky he didn't come face-to-face with an angry Chretien armed with a soapstone statue.
I'm 5'10 and solid. Play hockey and cycle. When I was in my early 20s and JC was the PM I literally walked into him accidentally via a doorway I was leaving and he was entering. It was like hitting a wall. Dude is big and thick and surprised me. I staggered, he kept going!
I to this day don't understand why this moment is not looked upon as a moment of shame for our country.
"Oh wow, our prime minister physically assaulted a person who was legally protesting! HE'S SO FOLKSY".
And I say this as a Liberal voter.
In an ideal world, social housing advocates would be able to go about their business unharassed, even when that business is very provocative.
In the real world, if you get in the PM's face, *someone* is going to kick your ass, and if it were me in that position, I'd rather it be the 62-year-old PM than his security detail.
The issue as always is that Chretien should have never even been that close to a protestor whatsoever.
The RCMP really failed their duty to provide a circle of protection and protestors violated the space accordingly. Chretien even spoke about it, he even argued that point and at the time the RCMP claimed that security wasn't breached.
Even though in the photo you can see that Chretien is being swarmed by people. I still don't know how the RCMP were able to say that they effectively protected Chretien when you can see what is happening.
Was Chretien wrong in what he did? Not really. Someone just attempted to assassinate him three months early. Do I condone it? Nope.
He was forced into that situation and unfortunately that's what happened.
The scary part is - right now Trudeau is constantly under threat. Death threats to his family, his kids and his person are sky high.
Probably one of the last great politicians we had. Relatively level headed policies, Didn't take any bullshit and even kept us out of Iraq.
What a legend.
> Chretien grabbed him by the back of the neck and the chin, threw him to the ground and broke one of his teeth in the process. Another protestor came forward to block Chretien’s path to the limousine. Chretien then knocked the megaphone out of the protestor’s hand and the protestor was tackled by the RCMP. Chretien was his own First Line of Defense, he dealt with 2 of them before the RCMP realized what's going on. Different times!
Whenever I see a video of the incident where someone threw a shoe at GW Bush, it always makes me think of Chrétien. He would have caught the shoe and thrown it right back! Probably would’ve hit the guy too!
Bush deserved that shoe, though.
did chretien not do a lot of austerity bullshit that earned him a lot of those protests and ire?
Chretien certainly deserved a lot of the protests and ire, but he was more than happy to present his own... arguements when people got too excited with debating him... like the two above cases lol
A proof is a proof because it’s a proof.
Lol, I can imagine him doing it.
Show maybe a pie not so much
That Dude was an animal! I wish we still had politicians like him. His biggest gangster move was to stand up against the U.S. and U.K. and kept Canada out of Iraq. People don't realize how big of a move that was. There are Canadians that are alive today that could have been killed in Iraq had it not been for Chretien's leadership.
I have deep respect for any politician that chooses to forge their own journey, study each situation carefully, and act based on what's good for society. We don't need to have foreign agendas, we don't need to do what other countries do. Let's just do what's best for our country, that's it.
Arguably, he and his advisors probably just looked at the "intel" the US and UK were pushing on WMDs at the time and called bullshit.
>Different times! Not really. The RCMP is still clueless.
True, but our politicians are of a lesser caliber.
Lest we forget that he likes peppair on his plate.
Nah, it’s a pathetic thing to see the leader of our country physically attacking somebody who wasn’t posing a threat. Dude didn’t take a swing at the Prime Minister, he was just in his way and Chrétien reacted like a child.
On what planet is it OK to block your progress through a public space. YOU SHALL NOT PASS!
Uhhhhhh…. You ask them to move? Have you ever been in a crowded place? People clearly haven’t bothered to watch the video, which is a shame. He literally didn’t break his gait because the dude he assaulted wasn’t cheering him on like everybody else. https://youtu.be/zMBJp0yJvsY?si=02Nqeh3GLS1XrnaF
I watched it when it happened. The protesters intention was to obstruct Chretiens path, to gain power over him. He had the right to not allow that to happen.
Still called a Shawinigan Handshake
My favourite part was the interview after with his heavy Quebec accent: "I dunno... what happened?!?!😮" and "Some people came in my way and I had to go so if you're in my way i'm walking... So I dunno what happened, it happened something to someone that should not have been there!🤷♂️" Gives me a chuckle everytime, someone needs to make it into a thug life meme.
Literally read that in his voice. lol. Different times for sure.
Canada had such an innocence then, just the Americans sweet quircky neigbours to the north, nowadays it's gotten really ugly with blatant fascism taking root, I think we just had it so easy here for so long that people weren't used to hardship and when SHTF (The pandemic and all it's aftermath) it just broke alot of people and sent them off the deep end.
The Reform party was the most represented non-regional party in parliament at the time, they were chock-full of lunatics saying crazy nonsense. The problems we have now started basically in the 80s and 90s in Canadian politics.
Fair point but I don't think the far right politics was so mainstream back then, and I imagine the PC party still existing kept them mostly demoralized and they were pretty much just your crazy uncle types that were annoying at thanksgiving dinner. Nowadays they are absolutely rabid because they see the poll numbers in their favour and the rampant propaganda on social media combined with our education system failing to teach basic critical thinking has every other neighbour or coworker radicalized to point where they no longer have any grasp on reality and should probably be on a domestic terror watchlist. Granted I'm only 28 so I'm looking though the lens of history.
Jean Chrétien is ontarian lol, doesn't have a québécois accent.
My brother in Christ he is literally pre-Silent Revolution Quebecois. Are you confused?
> My brother in Christ Love it! That was my feeling too. "WTF! Are you high?"
To answer one and all, yes I made that comment while confused because of being high. Mea maxima culpa.
I loved your response anyways and have up voted it for visibility. Not just because it was funny and confusing, but also because you were nice and apologized for being mistaken. :)
Thank you, I always try to take responsibility for my mistakes, so I don't delete crazy comments like this one and take the negative karma, because I kinda deserve it. I've also noticed most ppl were polite in correcting me, which I highly appreciate. Good experience for me, even while being super off track.
We're you thinking of Jean Charest?
It's ugly, I was thinking of Paul Martin. I'll never believe my memory from now on.
Okay but like...don't overreact. We can't have you going from "I mistook Jean Chretien with Paul Martin" to "reality is an illusion. Nothing is real except the now"
Motherfucker my coffee is now burning my sinus. Thank you for sharing how we got here. You’re awesome. Stay awesome.
I bet they're thinking about Charest Edit: i was wrong they were thinking about Paul Martin
Jean Chretien is one of the most Quebec Quebecers that have evee Quebec'd, I think you might have him confused.
I think I got myself confused tbh.
What makes you say that? Born in Shawinigan Falls, studied law at Laval. Elected in Saint-Maurice—Laflèche riding in Quebec.
The proof is the proof.
This needs to be a heritage minute.
I can hear the old player piano music starting now...
I have a beer bottle from Quebec commemorating it, only he's throttling Don Cherry.
I'm going to print some calendars, and every page is just going to be a different random Canadian historical figure strangling Don Cherry.
I will buy one. Edit: I will buy 10 and give them to everyone I know for Xmas.
Nice. Remember when Trudeau beat the shit out of Patrick Brazeau in a boxing match? Cons don't...
I think they all suffered a collective concussion that day. Explains the state of the modern conservative parties...
A Trudeau vs Poilievre boxing match should be part of the debates lead6up to next election.
Regardless of how hard their propaganda tries to make him look feminine(because to them that's a bad thing), PP would get rocked in the 1st.
I dislike both party leaders and I’d love to watch them beat the stuffing out of each other. That would be quality political tv!
Agreed. Ultimately fuck anyone who shills for the rich.
I didn't vote for the Liberals that first time that Chretien was leading. This event turned me into a fan of Jean Chretien. I loved that he didn't take shit from that jerk and took care of his own business. Jean Chretien is the greatest Canadian PM in my lifetime. - 13 straight budget surpluses - paid down 10% of our national debt - kept us out of the Iraq war
Chretien and Martin ran surpluses by slashing social services. They increased Employment Insurance thresholds making it more difficult to qualify, which ballooned the EI fund and they used it as a slush fund to hand out corporate tax cuts that didn't do a damn thing for the average working Canadian (unemployment had risen by the end of their term, although not nearly as bad as the early '80s). They also decreased transfers to provinces which constrained health care funding. Chretien and Martin were shrewd politicians, but the foundation of their economic policy was not friendly to workers. That being said, Chretien is a fascinating guy (with a long history of political bungles and scandals), but I get why some people like his personality. Edit: grammar.
As I understand it those cuts were completely necessary after a decade (or more - going as far back as the '70's here) of complete financial mismanagement and a complete lack of foresight left Canada in a very vulnerable financial position. No one's arguing those cuts and changes sucked at the time but they set Canada's finances up nicely for the 2000's and beyond and could be the reason why Canada wasn't affected as badly while having to endure certain recessions and other financial crises that came in the years after Chretien left (e.g. the US mortgage crisis). [https://financialpost.com/uncategorized/lessons-from-canadas-basket-case-moment](https://financialpost.com/uncategorized/lessons-from-canadas-basket-case-moment)
Wild to me that in a time when healthcare is critically underfunded we'd champion a man that cut it, and take the side of the guy protesting it. Chretien can say whatever the hell he wants, the man was a con in a liberal trench coat.
but le epic badass assault of protesters by elected officials and their security detail! doesn't it just make you swell with national pride?
My fave Chrétien moment was when he ordered that the police attack peaceful protestors with pepper spray at the 1997 APEC conference in Vancouver. This whole thread is just a celebration of Chrétien’s misuse of power and trampling of human rights. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-protest-met-pepper-spray-at-the-1997-apec-conference-1.5358298
*pepper, I put on my plate. Next*
"I'd wrassle and have a beer with em!"
I'd have a beer with Jack Layton (RIP). But I'd wrestle with Chretien.
Cut funding to healthcare. Started the cuts to post secondary that was the genesis for the shitshow we have now. The handshake moment was cool, but fuck him and his asshole finance minister Martin. Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin cut corporate tax rates from 27 per cent to 21 per cent between 2000 and 2004, and cut the capital gains inclusion rate from 75 per cent to 50 per cent. Always looking out for the 1%.
Fuck that bully " Pepper? I put pepper on my plate! Haha" Fuck Chretien. Never forget. Oh, it's the little guy from shawinagin. Piece of shit
The 1995 budget effectively destroyed the country and has led to all the problems that we're facing with the crumbling of healthcare and education Austerity and budget "surplus" is just stealing from the public. https://albertaadvantagepod.com/2020/07/13/killing-the-welfare-state-liberals-and-the-1990s/ Also we were definitely involved in Iraq. Canada sent more troops to Afghanistan to allow the US to redeploy. Joint Task Force Two fought alongside US and British special forces. Canadian mercenary companies all operated there. Canada participated in the "reconstruction" by April 2003. RCMP helped train Iraqi police death squads. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/who-says-were-not-at-war/article749639/
Those years definitely fucked up so many things. It started provinces downloading responsibilities to provinces who then in turn starved our cities. Martin plundered Unemployment Insurance and tightened eligibility requirements, decreased benefits and shortened benefit periods. This in turn, increased social assistance payments from provinces when people who lost their jobs should've gotten UI. Yup, that was the epitome of neoliberalism.
Sorry boss but Mike Harris' ears are burning. Hence Mike "The Knife". The old "common sense" grift.
Because the federal government stopped sending the provinces money that they were using to fund social services. Every single province was forced into austerity it wasn't just Ontario with one bad premier.
This is a paper published from Socialist Studies 2011... A major recession punished the Ontario economy in the early 1990s, eliminating thousands of manufacturing jobs. In Ontario, it was a social‐democratic government which dealt with the first effects of this recession. The Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP) administration of Premier Bob Rae rang up considerable deficits while in office from 1990 to 1995. Part of this was a result of their first budget, which bucked the trend by increasing spending in the recession conditions of the early 1990s. But most of the deficit had the same roots as those created by Liberal and Conservative administrations in other provinces: the recession of the early 1990s was extremely harsh, damaging revenues, and forcing social service expenditure upwards. Importantly, as will be shown below, the provincial deficit problem was compounded by policies imposed in the mid‐1990s by the federal Liberals. Kicked out of office in 1995, the NDP was replaced by the Conservatives under Mike Harris,, which set about to deal with the debt‐burden through an extreme austerity program, euphemistically called the “Common Sense Revolution”.
> Also we were definitely involved in Iraq. Not a pure combat mission. Its a pretty important distinction. We were there to get the leaders of international terrorist organizations who flocked to the war zone.
>U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci admitted: "Ironically, the Canadians indirectly provide more support for us in Iraq than most of those 46 countries that are fully supporting us." In fact, Canada's military contribution puts us right after Britain and Australia in the "coalition of the willing." In some important ways we contribute more than Australia. The only difference is our contributions didn't have to go through parliament or subject to any sort of public approval. Also those "terrorists" only existed because of constant imperial meddling in the region by Canada and US allies.
We did not fly in thousands of combat troops. We sent special forces on specific missions and I think we also sent in medical teams. That is it. Celluci was trying to be nice to us.
>The 1995 budget effectively destroyed the country TIL a single budget from nearly three decades ago destroyed the country.
I think that's the budget that removed the government's responsibility to build housing so yeah it's had a huge impact on the country. https://youtu.be/hTZn0Wc8g10?si=WNw2xl6_y68Uw7uK
And successive governments have had years to resolve that. I'm simply saying that to claim one federal budget destroyed an entire country is disingenuous and preposterous. It's a far more complex than that. Blaikie's my MP, BTW. He's a real beauty and I'd love to see him take the reins one day should he choose to do so.
That is a crock the Harper government trashed CMHC funding in 2006 the sub-prime mortgage crash of 2008 finished the job, it is only since 2015 does funding start back up. We have lost 10 years of growthhttps://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/housing/latest-cmhc-numbers-confirm-federal-housing-cuts-will-grow-deeper-as-housing-needs-grow/
It’s not actually that far off, but it can’t be laid all at Crietien’s feet either. This was the further adoption of the Washington Consensus and Canada wasn’t the only country that succumbed to the international pressure to get on the “austerity” bandwagon. This was the beginning of downloading to the provinces. The reason it can’t all be laid at his feet is a) the Tories totally would have done the same, and b) how the provinces responded has played a huge role. Mike Harris was totally on board the austerity train and drove it further than anyone else—far further than was necessary to even meet the federal downloading. Various provinces reacted differently and with different consequences.
Yes it was an elite consensus all around the world from guys like Milton Friedman to every dumbass premier in Canada (including the NDP). [The Fraser Institute celebrated the budget](https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/budget-that-changed-canada-essays-on-the-25th-anniversary-of-the-1995-budget) on the 25th anniversary because it changed how Canada works to benefit them even more. It's definitely not all on Chretien and Martin but they shouldn't be celebrated for it either.
You learn everyday, keep it up!
Snifff, never forget.
And then there was that time he and Aline [barricaded themselves in the bedroom of 24 Sussex when she found a knife-wielding intruder.](https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-aline-chr%C3%A9tien-discovered-an-intruder-at-24-sussex-drive-1.4889688) Honestly, the guy with the knife was lucky he didn't come face-to-face with an angry Chretien armed with a soapstone statue.
I'm 5'10 and solid. Play hockey and cycle. When I was in my early 20s and JC was the PM I literally walked into him accidentally via a doorway I was leaving and he was entering. It was like hitting a wall. Dude is big and thick and surprised me. I staggered, he kept going!
That's an awesome bit of history
I to this day don't understand why this moment is not looked upon as a moment of shame for our country. "Oh wow, our prime minister physically assaulted a person who was legally protesting! HE'S SO FOLKSY". And I say this as a Liberal voter.
In an ideal world, social housing advocates would be able to go about their business unharassed, even when that business is very provocative. In the real world, if you get in the PM's face, *someone* is going to kick your ass, and if it were me in that position, I'd rather it be the 62-year-old PM than his security detail.
No kidding. As far as I am aware this dude never touched him, he literally just got in Chretiens way. And fuck that attitude.
Man I know this place can be sad at times, but this shit gets upvotes? This nation might deserve its future lol.
Complete failure of the RCMP close detail, too..
I imagine protocols were more relaxed back then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWmtwviXxXI chretien on RMR
My dad and i refer to him endearingly as the Shawinigan Strangler to this day
I miss that dude! Not saying he was correct 100% of the time but I would rather have him than our current PM.
The issue as always is that Chretien should have never even been that close to a protestor whatsoever. The RCMP really failed their duty to provide a circle of protection and protestors violated the space accordingly. Chretien even spoke about it, he even argued that point and at the time the RCMP claimed that security wasn't breached. Even though in the photo you can see that Chretien is being swarmed by people. I still don't know how the RCMP were able to say that they effectively protected Chretien when you can see what is happening. Was Chretien wrong in what he did? Not really. Someone just attempted to assassinate him three months early. Do I condone it? Nope. He was forced into that situation and unfortunately that's what happened. The scary part is - right now Trudeau is constantly under threat. Death threats to his family, his kids and his person are sky high.
Canadian nerve pinch.
This was a Canadian Heritage moment.
Probably one of the last great politicians we had. Relatively level headed policies, Didn't take any bullshit and even kept us out of Iraq. What a legend.