Editing Jean Chrétien (section)

===Leader of the Official Opposition===

As Chrétien's leadership victory occurred on June 23, 1990 &ndash; the same day that the Meech Lake Accord failed to gain ratification &ndash; he was heavily criticized in the Quebec media for his opposition to the accord. Photographs of Chrétien embracing Newfoundland Premier [[Clyde Kirby Wells|Clyde Wells]], a prominent opponent of Meech Lake, at the convention attracted much negative comment in Quebec.<ref>Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 pp. 26–27.</ref> His leadership was also shaken by the defection of francophone MPs (and Martin loyalists) [[Jean Lapierre]] and [[Gilles Rocheleau]] from the caucus to the new [[Bloc Québécois]] (BQ); Lapierre and Rocheleau contended that they could not serve under the anti-Meech Lake Chrétien. In a [[1990 Laurier—Sainte-Marie federal by-election|by-election]] for [[Laurier—Sainte-Marie]] on August 13, 1990, the Bloc's [[Gilles Duceppe]] badly defeated Chrétien's hand-picked candidate [[Denis Coderre]], costing the Liberals a constituency they had held since 1917; many attributed this to Chrétien's opposition to the Meech Lake Accord.<ref name="Martin-p30">Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man: The Defiant Reign of Jean Chrétien'' Toronto: Viking Canada, 2003 p. 30.</ref> Upon becoming Liberal leader, Chrétien appointed his friend [[Eddie Goldenberg]] as his chief of staff, and formed a leadership team comprising John Rae and David Zussman as his policy advisors, his "surrogate son" Jean Carle as his special executive assistant, [[Warren Kinsella]] as his media adviser, and [[George Radwanski]] as his speech-writer.<ref name="Jeffrey, Brooke p. 198">Jeffrey, Brooke ''Divided Loyalties: The Liberal Party of Canada, 1984–2008'', Toronto: University of Toronto Press p. 198.</ref> All members of this leadership team were later to play prominent roles in the Prime Minister's Office during Chrétien's time as Prime Minister.<ref name="Jeffrey, Brooke p. 198"/>

In September 1990, Chrétien, seeing a chance to make a strong impression on public opinion after a shaky start as leader, reaped a major windfall after Mulroney introduced an unpopular [[Goods and Services Tax (Canada)|Goods and Services Tax]] (GST), which Chrétien decided to vigorously oppose.<ref name="Tanguay-p217-239">Tanguay, Brian "Canada's Political Parties in the 1990s" pp. 217–239 from ''Canada: The State of the Federation, 1998'' edited by Harvey Lazar & Tom McIntosh, Kingston: Queen's University, 1999 p. 233.</ref> Traditionally in Canada, the government had levied a 13.5% Manufacturer's Sales Tax (MST) paid by manufacturers, who passed on the cost of the tax to consumers in the form of higher prices. Since foreign manufacturers did not pay the MST, however, this placed Canadian companies at a competitive disadvantage in their home market. To compensate, the government had levied tariffs on manufactured imports to maintain a level playing field. When the free trade agreement with the United States came into effect in 1989, the government could no longer levy tariffs on American imports, leading to furious complaints from Canadian industry about having to compete with American companies who did not pay the MST. To save Canadian industry and the jobs of those Canadians employed in manufacturing from being destroyed by American competition, the Mulroney government decided in late 1989 to abolish the MST and replace it with the GST, whose 7% costs would be borne by consumers. On the proposed GST, Chrétien was torn between his belief that the tax was economically necessary and his desire to score political points by opposing a proposed tax that most Canadians hated; consequently, he was initially vague about where he stood on the GST.<ref>Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking 2003 pp. 30 & 32.</ref> Only in September 1990, after months of vacillation, did Chrétien finally make up his mind to oppose the GST.<ref name=":3"/>

Chrétien's decision to oppose the GST in 1990 was taken for reasons of political expediency rather than principle, namely that he needed an issue to oppose the government on that would allow him to connect with the public; sources close to Chrétien were later to claim that he had wanted to support the GST bill, but his caucus had forced him to oppose it against his will.<ref name=":3">Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man: The Defiant Reign of Jean Chrétien'' Toronto: Viking Canada, 2003 p. 32.</ref><ref>Jeffrey, Brooke ''Divided Loyalties: The Liberal Party of Canada, 1984–2008'', Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010 pp. 201–202.</ref> At a Liberal event in the fall of 1990, Chrétien stated that if he became Prime Minister, "the Mulroney GST will disappear", going on to say: "I am opposed to the GST. I have always been opposed to it. And I will be opposed to it, always".<ref name="Tanguay-p217-239"/> To capitalize on widespread public dislike on the proposed GST, Chrétien ordered the Liberal-dominated [[Senate of Canada|Senate]] to defeat the GST bill in late September 1990, leading Mulroney on September 27, 1990, to appoint eight PC senators to give the Tories a majority using a never-before-used section of the ''Constitution Act'', the so-called "Deadlock Clause".<ref>Joyal, Serge ''Protecting Canadian Democracy: The Senate You Never Knew'', Montreal: McGill-Queen's Press, 2003 p. 162.</ref> At that point, Chrétien ordered the Liberal senators to [[filibuster]] the GST bill, reducing the Senate to scenes of chaos for the entire fall of 1990.<ref>Joyal, Serge ''Protecting Canadian Democracy: The Senate You Never Knew'', Montreal: McGill-Queen's Press, 2003 pp. 162–163.</ref> On October 24, 1990, a poll revealed that the Liberals had fallen behind the New Democrats, which Chrétien admitted in an interview might have something to do with the scenes of obstructionist, often childish behavior by the Liberal senators.<ref>Joyal, Serge ''Protecting Canadian Democracy: The Senate You Never Knew'', Montreal: McGill-Queen's Press, 2003 p. 163.</ref>

In December 1990, Chrétien returned to the House of Commons after winning a [[1990 Beauséjour federal by-election|by-election]] in the safe Liberal riding of [[Beauséjour (electoral district)|Beauséjour]] in New Brunswick. The incumbent, [[Fernand Robichaud]], stood down in Chrétien's favour, which is traditional practice when a newly elected party leader does not have a seat in the Commons. Initially, Chrétien had planned to wait until the next general election before running, but was advised by [[Herb Gray]] that: "To have credibility, you're got to be in the House. You can't afford to wait two more years until a general election."<ref name="Martin-p31">Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man: The Defiant Reign of Jean Chrétien'' Toronto: Viking Canada, 2003 p. 31.</ref> Gray's appeal changed Chrétien's mind about when to seek a seat in the House of Commons. For much of 1991–92, Chrétien found himself emotionally exhausted after his adopted son Michel was charged with kidnapping, rape, and sodomy against a Montreal woman and was convicted.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence p. 53">Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 p. 53.</ref> Michel Chrétien suffered from [[fetal alcohol spectrum disorder]] and had a long history of legal trouble.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence p. 53"/>

In October 1991, Chrétien first expressed his views about how best to end the [[early 1990s recession|recession which had begun in 1990]], arguing that the answer was a policy of slow [[devaluation]] in which the dollar would be allowed to decline against other major world currencies; this would have the effect of both pricing out foreign imports and, by giving Canadian firms a competitive advantage in world markets, boosting exports.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence p. 46">Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 p. 46.</ref> However, Chrétien concluded that his planned export offensive powered by a low dollar would come to nothing if other nations maintained tariffs to keep Canadian goods out of their markets.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence p. 46"/> In order to make his plans to export Canada back into prosperity work, Chrétien decided that the solution was [[globalization]].<ref name="Martin, Lawrence p. 46"/> Besides for globalization, Chrétien also argued to combat the recession, the federal government needed to make the system of unemployment insurance less generous, and to end the policy of high interest rates maintained by [[Bank of Canada]] Governor [[John Crow]] to achieve his target of zero percent inflation, which Chrétien argued was needlessly crippling the economy.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence p. 46"/>

In November 1991, Chrétien organized a party conference in [[Aylmer, Quebec]], where the Liberals formally disavowed most of the economic nationalism and protectionism of the Pearson-Trudeau years and instead embraced globalization as the cure for the ongoing recession.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence pp. 47-48">Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 pp. 47–48.</ref> Reflecting this changed emphasis, the Liberals declared their support for the free trade agreement with the United States, which the party had famously promised to tear up if they won the 1988 election; instead, Mulroney was now denounced for not going far enough in opening up the economy by signing more free trade agreements with other nations.{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

Chrétien revealed himself to be a staunch "hard federalist" favouring a strong federal government at the expense of the provinces, much along the same lines as his predecessor Trudeau. However, unlike Trudeau, Chrétien supported the [[Charlottetown Accord]] of August 1992, another package of constitutional amendments which proposed devolving federal powers to the provinces and once again recognized Quebec as a "distinct society".<ref name="Martin-p55">Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man: The Defiant Reign of Jean Chrétien'' Toronto: Viking Canada, 2003 p. 55.</ref> Chrétien endorsed the Charlottetown Accord on the rather negative grounds that the constitutional debates of the late 1980s and early 1990s were destroying Canada, saying it "was bleeding the nation to death" and that Charlottetown was the best way of ending that debate in order to move the focus back to the economic recession.<ref name="Martin-p55" /> At a Liberal caucus meeting on September 8, 1992, Chrétien declared that "if we had been the government we would not have made this deal", and that only reason to support Charlottetown was that rejecting it would increase support for Quebec separatism.<ref>Jeffrey, Brooke ''Divided Loyalties: The Liberal Party of Canada, 1984–2008'', Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010 p. 216.</ref>

When Mulroney began to lose ground in the polls, Chrétien was the major beneficiary. In preparation for the [[1993 Canadian federal election|1993 election]], Chrétien won the right to have final approval over riding nominations and to veto any candidate that displeased him.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence p. 56">Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 p. 56.</ref> Chrétien's use of this power caused some protests within the party, with [[John Nunziata]] publicly complaining that, "The backroom guys have taken control of the party. I guess they think they can muzzle us all".<ref name="Martin, Lawrence p. 56"/> Chrétien was so confident that he was going to win the 1993 election that he formed his transition team in October 1992 to prepare for the hand-over of power 13 months before it actually happened.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence p. 58">Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 p. 58.</ref>

====The 1993 election====
Mulroney announced his retirement in February, and was succeeded by [[Minister of National Defence (Canada)|Minister of National Defence]] [[Kim Campbell]] in June. Campbell pulled the PCs to within a few percentage points of the Liberals by the time [[Dropping the writ|the writs were dropped]] in September.{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

On September 19, Chrétien released the Liberal platform. The 112-page document, ''Creating Opportunity'', quickly became known as the [[Red Book (Liberal Party of Canada)|Red Book]] because of its bright red cover. Chrétien's rival Paul Martin, who led the team that produced the Red Book, was less complimentary about it in private; he was often reported to have said: "Don't tell me about the Red Book, I wrote the damn thing, and I know that it is a lot of crap!"<ref name="Jeffrey-p265">Jeffrey, Brooke ''Divided Loyalties'' Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010, p. 265.</ref> 

The Liberals promised to remove the GST, which had previously been imposed by the Tories;<ref name="Tanguay-p217-239" /> [[Sheila Copps]] famously promised to resign within a year of taking office if the GST was not repealed.<ref name="Tanguay-p217-239" /> Chrétien also promised to renegotiate the [[North American Free Trade Agreement]] (NAFTA), and reform the [[unemployment insurance]] system. The Liberals were in favour of a free trade agreement for North America in principle, but accused Mulroney of having given away too much to the Americans and Mexicans when he signed NAFTA in 1992, and stated that the Liberal government would renegotiate NAFTA on more favourable terms to Canada within six months of taking office. Failing that, Chrétien promised that Canada would renounce NAFTA. The main emphasis was on a promise to spend $6&nbsp;billion on improving infrastructure in a Keynesian move to fight the recession of the early 1990s.<ref>Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto:Viking, 2003 p. 65.</ref> As regarding the debt situation, Chrétien promised to reduce Canada's deficit to 3 per cent of GDP (the same deficit to GDP ratio required to enter the European Union) within three years of taking office.<ref name="Grady">{{cite web |last = Grady |first = Patrick |title = The Liberal Red Book: The Economist's Perspective |publisher = Global Economics Commentaries |date= September 10, 2007| url = http://global-economics.ca/redbook.htm |access-date = May 20, 2013}}</ref> Chrétien made it clear that the 3 percent deficit to GDP ratio would apply only to the federal government, whereas the [[Maastricht Treaty]] of 1991 which set out the 3 percent deficit to GDP ratio in order to enter the European Union stated that this applied to all levels of government.<ref name="Grady" /> The Liberal government promised to achieve its goal of reducing the deficit to three percent of the GDP by cancelling the contract to [[Canadian Sea King replacement|replace the Sea King helicopters]], privatizing [[Toronto Pearson International Airport|Toronto Pearson Airport]], and by eliminating unspecified "waste" in the government. After the 3 percent target had been achieved within the first three years of taking office, Chrétien promised the deficit would be eliminated at some unspecified time in the future. Martin wanted to promise to eliminate the deficit altogether, but had been overruled by Chrétien, who had wanted to present the Liberals as the "caring" party that would defend social programs, unlike the "heartless" Conservatives and the Reform Party who Chrétien claimed wanted to eliminate the deficit within two or three years by gutting social programs with no thought for any suffering that this might cause.<ref>Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'' Toronto: Viking, 2003 pp. 60–62.</ref> Chrétien claimed in his campaign speeches that Reform's plans for eliminating the deficit within two or three years of taking office would cause at least a 25 percent unemployment rate, if not higher, which Chrétien claimed starkly in a series of speeches would cause a bloody "revolution".<ref name=":2">Martin, Lawrence ''Iron Man'', Toronto: Viking, 2003 p. 62.</ref> Chrétien had personally chosen the target of reducing the deficit to 3 percent of GDP as it made the Liberals seemed fiscally responsible while at the same time promised that the Liberals would not inflict too much economic pain to achieve that fiscal responsibility.<ref name="Grady" /> One Liberal candidate [[Herb Dhaliwal]] recalled that for Chrétien at time of the 1993 election that the national deficit was not a major issue and that: "His attitude was that the deficit is ok as long as you can manage it".<ref name=":2"/>

{{quote box|width=216px|quote=But last night, the Conservative Party reached a new low; they tried to make fun of the way I look. God gave me a physical defect, and I accepted that since I'm a kid. {{sic}} It's true, that I speak on one side of my mouth. I'm not a Tory, I don't speak on both sides of my mouth.|source= —Jean Chretien responding to the "[[1993 Chrétien attack ad|face ad]]", 1993. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PikszBkfTHM Source video]}}

By late September 1993, the Liberals had a double-digit lead in most opinion polls, and by October they were favourites to win at least a [[minority government]]. Even at this stage, however, Chrétien's personal approval ratings were far behind those of Campbell. Realizing this, the PC campaign team released a series of ads attacking Chrétien. The ads were viewed as a last-ditch effort to keep the Liberals from winning a majority. The [[1993 Chrétien attack ad|second ad]], released on October 14, appeared to mock Chrétien's facial paralysis and generated a severe backlash from all sides.<ref>CBC News, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. October 15, 1993. Television</ref> Even some Tory candidates called for the ad to be removed. Campbell was not directly responsible for the ad, and ordered it off the air over her staff's objections.{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

On October 25, the Liberals were elected to a majority government, winning 177 seats{{spaced ndash}}the third-best performance in the Liberals' history, and their most impressive win since their record of 190 seats in [[1949 Canadian federal election|1949]]. The PCs were nearly wiped out, winning only two seats in the worst defeat ever suffered by a governing party at the federal level. Chrétien himself yielded Beauséjour back to Robichaud in order to run in his old riding, Saint-Maurice. However, he was unable to lead the Liberals back to their traditional dominance in Quebec, being one of only four Liberal MPs elected from that province outside the Montreal area. With few exceptions, most of the support that had switched from the Liberals to the PCs nine years earlier switched to the Bloc Québécois, which became the Official Opposition.{{Cn|date=March 2025}}