National Post (National Edition)
‘Wise and wily’ tells some tales
Chrétien book sheds light on key moments
Many people — not least former prime minister Stephen Harper in his new book — say one reason there has not been a populist backlash in Canada is our banking system, which stood firm during the financial crisis of 2008.
The reason it did so, Harper argues, is because Canada rejected the kind of deregulation of the financial system that took place in the United States.
The credit for this has generally been awarded to Paul Martin, finance minister in the Liberal government that rejected Bank of Montreal’s proposed merger with Royal Bank and CIBC’S proposed combination with TorontoDominion.
But as made clear in another new book by a former prime minister, this time Jean Chrétien, that decision was not Martin’s. In fact, in an interview with National Post, Chrétien said the decision was his alone — and that Martin and John Manley, the then-industry minister, were in favour of the mergers.
In My Stories, My Times, Chrétien writes, “My ministers who were close to the business sector wanted us to follow the lead of the Americans but I thought on the contrary that the independence of the four pillars of finance, each of which had been separate from the others since the 1930s, had served us well and should be maintained.”
Chrétien said his experience as finance minister persuaded him that Canada would end up with just two banks and there would be no competition. Who was in favour? “Martin and Manley for sure were on that side. Nobody came from the other side. But it was not a debate. It was a decision by a prime minister who had been a minister of finance,” he said in the interview.
The book is an odd collection of anecdotes, set down at the insistence of the author’s grandson, Olivier, lest they be lost to history.
They are largely amusing flotsam, originally handwritten in French by the former prime minister to entertain himself and his family.
They come in no particular order and at least two of them are repeated. But they confirm the impression former British prime minister Tony Blair offered in his memoirs, where he recalled fondly his dealings with Chrétien, “a wise, wily and experienced old bird who talked sense.”
One story sums up that native cunning. In 1964, Chrétien proposed a private members’ bill to change the name of Trans-canada Airlines to Air Canada. He outmanoeuvred party whips intent on killing private legislation by lining up six MPS to speak — a tactic usually used to talk down the clock for an hour and kill bills. But Chrétien somehow managed to get opposition MPS to agree to talk for just two minutes each. Following his own five-minute speech to introduce the bill, discussion then continued for 15 more minutes, before all the MPS sat down. With no more speakers left, it went to a vote and passed. Air Canada has been at the top of the alphabetical lists of carriers on airport information boards ever since.
There are a few tales that may read slightly more altitudinous than the reality. Did he really sink a 50-foot putt in a golf game with Bill Clinton? Asked in an interview, he said, “Perhaps it was 49 …”
At 84, he still takes a keen interest in the political game and is delighted to hear that Harper modelled much of his own incremental style on Chrétien’s.
On the recently completed trade deal with the United States, Chrétien said that the optimism he expressed in My Stories, My Times — written before the deal’s conclusion — was justified.
“I wrote in the book, (U.S. President Donald Trump) could not undo an omelette. What is his big victory? He changed the name. They made some little adjustments. He didn’t want the mechanism on arbitration and we still have it. He wanted something on milk and we gave him exactly what Harper had given in the TPP. He imposed restrictions for working in the automobile industry in Mexico that benefit us,” he said.
As two of Canada’s longest-serving prime ministers, Chrétien and Harper have more in common than either would care to admit. But one area of profound disagreement would be Russian President Vladimir Putin. Harper characterizes Putin’s regime as a blurring of private business, political office and organized crime. He famously told Putin to “get out of Ukraine” and helped orchestrate Russia’s suspension from the G8.
Chrétien has had a much more amicable relationship with the Russian leader, once proposing they meet in the Arctic. “I said to him, ‘Come from the north on your side with vodka and we’ll meet at the top of the world.’ They are our neighbours,” he said. “They lost an empire and when you lose it, it’s not pleasant. Putin made Russia a player again.”
Chrétien said he disagrees with Putin’s techniques. “I would not have done it the way he has done it, but it’s not for me to say how he should run his country.”
He said he once visited the White House, where he had dinner with president George W. Bush and vice-president Dick Cheney. “They wanted to know from me what he was like. I said: ‘This guy’s not nuts’. He’s a tough son of a bitch but he knows what he is talking about. But not a fun guy.
“I have the impression he’s trying to build back the USSR, in collaboration with the Chinese. For me, I was in favour of Russia being part of Europe. Now they will be part of China.”