Monday, April 16, 2007

Birthday Wishes

For anyone feeling nostalgic, Don Newman had a good interview with Jean Chretien today (which you should be able to download here, sometime this evening). The main focus was on the Charter but, of course, talk drifted on to things like Harper, re-opening the constitution, the Liberal-Green deal, Dion's leadership and a host of other issues.

Le p'tit gars will be on Duffy tomorrow.

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posted by calgarygrit at 6:38 p.m.

11 Comments:

  • Kind of nice to see the old guy again. He didn't seem to have much time for the Dion nay-sayers.

    By Blogger Red Tory, at 8:00 p.m.  

  • I try to remember him kindly as the guy who kept us out of Iraq, and who slashed the limit on political donations (bill C-24).

    By Blogger JimTan, at 1:14 a.m.  

  • Did Don ask him where the missing stolen millions are stashed ??

    Or why Cretin sicked the RCMP lapdogs on the president of the BDC . . just because he told Cretin he wouldn't make an illegal loan to one of Cretin's buddies . . who happened to owe him money ??


    Probably not.

    He might be the most useless PM Canada ever had. Thank god he is gone.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:02 a.m.  

  • If you guys like the way Chretien slashed limits on political donations, you will be swooning over Harper when he takes away the $1.75 per vote that political parties now get.

    By Blogger Calgary Junkie, at 11:07 a.m.  

  • junkie said,

    "Harper when he takes away the $1.75 per vote that political parties now get."

    Are you talking from knowledge, or from your rear end?

    fred said

    " He might be the most useless PM Canada ever had. Thank god he is gone."

    You're got a short memory. What do he and martin do about the PC budget deficit?

    By Blogger JimTan, at 11:32 a.m.  

  • jimtam: Harper mentioned it once about a year ago, that he wants to eventually change the way political parties are financed. Like the cagey political player that he is, he merely mentioned that the $1.75 per vote was one thing he was looking at.

    So rest assured, Harper will spring something like that when you least suspect it, when Professor Dion will have to think fast in giving his reaction, and when it does the LPC the most financial damage.

    Unlike your extremely mediocre, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants, leader, Harper actually THINKS things through before doing anything.

    By Blogger Calgary Junkie, at 2:01 p.m.  

  • "You're got a short memory. What do he and martin do about the PC budget deficit"

    Ya, Trudeau and the Liberal's never ran a deficit or ran up debt, right?

    By Blogger paulsstuff, at 2:22 p.m.  

  • It is a fun birthday, Dan - I've been learning some interesting things on some of the programming around the occasion.


    Guys, the Liberals and PCs ALL ran up debt. Enough with the finger pointing about the past - what matters today is what we're spending and earning in 2007.

    By Blogger Jacques Beau Vert, at 2:50 p.m.  

  • Some random Chretien-related musings:

    While the balancing of the budget was certainly a credit to him (and Martin), the rest of Chretien's prime ministership was rather "meh". Although I'm certainly not his biggest fan, he wasn't all bad. However, he was a posterboy for cronyism, patronage, government mismanagement, and old-fashioned partisan politics - no, Harper didn't invent partisanship ;) - and despite how the Chretienites like to beat their chests over how many majorities they won, Chretien's electoral successes were more the result of circumstance than any grand machinations of his team.

    Regarding the bit about Iraq, Chretien and co. waffled and fencepost-sat on the subject for quite a while, until it became clear that the public opposed going to Iraq. Chretien made the right decision in the end, but it sure wasn't based on principle.

    Was Chretien the worst PM? No. Was he the best? Certainly not. Hard to say what his legacy will be, but I think he'll fade more quickly from memory than, say, Trudeau or Mulroney.

    By Blogger daniel, at 3:51 p.m.  

  • daniel; I really do seem to recall the public evenly split on Iraq at the time. Maybe 60/40 against, but not any more than that.

    Now, saying he defered to the UN is a fair criticism, but I don't think he was simply going along with public opinion.

    By Blogger calgarygrit, at 4:42 p.m.  

  • Canada and France were both planning on being part of the Iraq invasion until polls showed the sitting leaders that it would be costly politically.

    By Blogger nuna d. above, at 6:18 p.m.  

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