Editing Jean Chrétien (section)

===Minister of finance===
In 1977, following the resignation of Finance Minister [[Donald Stovel Macdonald|Donald MacDonald]], Chrétien succeeded him. He was the first [[francophone]] minister of finance, and remains one of only three francophones to have held that post. Chrétien's time at Finance highlighted his "enforcer" status, namely as someone who often helped to execute Trudeau's policies, but who rarely helped Trudeau to make policy.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence pp. 262-266">Martin, Lawrence ''Chrétien: The Will to Win'', Toronto: Lester Publishing, 1995 pp. 262–266.</ref> During his time at Finance, Trudeau completely excluded Chrétien from any role in making financial policy, instead expecting Chrétien to simply carry out the policies that he and his advisors at the PMO had decided beforehand without consulting Chrétien at all.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence pp. 262-266"/> 

Trudeau was extremely close to the West German Chancellor [[Helmut Schmidt]], and during the [[4th G7 summit|1978 G7]] summit in Bonn, Trudeau had extensive discussions with his friend Schmidt about how best to win re-election in 1979.<ref>Martin, Lawrence ''Chrétien: The Will to Win'', Toronto: Lester Publishing, 1995 p. 264.</ref> Schmidt suggested to Trudeau that he respond to criticism of the deficits he had been running by bringing in some big cuts to spending, an idea that Trudeau took up.<ref>Martin, Lawrence ''Chrétien: The Will to Win'', Toronto: Lester Publishing, 1995 p. 262.</ref> In 1978 Trudeau announced in a press statement $2&nbsp;billion in cuts without bothering to inform Chrétien beforehand about what he had decided to do, leaving his finance minister looking clueless in the resulting press interview.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence pp. 265-266">Martin, Lawrence ''Chrétien: The Will to Win'', Toronto: Lester Publishing, 1995 pp. 265–266.</ref> Chrétien found this experience so humiliating that he seriously considering resigning in protest.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence pp. 265-266"/> Chrétien was especially humiliated by the fact that Chancellor Schmidt was better informed of about what was going to happen than he was, which underlined that he was not a member of Trudeau's inner circle.<ref name="Martin, Lawrence pp. 265-266"/> 

Chrétien presented the two federal budgets to the House floor in 1978, one in [[April 1978 Canadian federal budget|April]] and the other in [[November 1978 Canadian federal budget|November]].
[[File:Jean Chrétien1.jpg|thumb|Chrétien in 1980]]