Jean Chretienis a liar and any resemblance between what he says and the truth is purely coincidental. Canadians can take solace in the fact that our fearless leader can outdo the President of the United States when it comes to playing fast and loose with the truth.
Bill Clinton lied to the American people when he denied having "sexual relations with that woman - Miss Lewinsky". His lies were not told to have Americans believe him. He only lied after being advised, as it turned out correctly, that the American public wouldn't care if he lied.
John Chretien, on the other hand, lied about why he didn’t attend the funeral of Jordan’s King Hussein to purposely have us dumb Canucks believe what he was saying. When one excuse didn't work, the Left Dishonourable Prime Minister went on to another one. If an election were held tomorrow, Chretien would be returned with a majority government so perhaps he can be forgiven for thinking that we are not all that bright. The following is the list of excuses that Canada’s most famous downhill skier gave as to why he did not attend the funeral of King Hussein of Jordan.
Excuse No. 1 -- I sent Lloyd Axworthy instead
Axworthy, the Minister of Foreign Affairs did indeed go and yes-- Pink Lloyd was quite capable of going. Almost any Liberal is capable of attending a funeral. If policy discussions were banned, even Dalton McGuinty could have gone. But that’s not the point. Since Canada’s head of state, Romeo the Blank, couldn’t have gone after sending his condolences prior to the King’s death that left the Prime Minister. Sending anyone in a lesser capacity was an insult to King Hussein , Jordan, the world community and, in particular, Arabs.
Excuse No. 2 -- The army told me I couldn’t go
Canada is not a military dictatorship--everyone knows that in this country, we democratically elect our dictators. Our military can’t run our military let alone the nation. Even Hillary Clinton, who believed that her southern Baptist husband was ministering to a troubled Jewish girl from Beverly Hills wouldn’t have bought this excuse.
Excuse No. 3 -- I didn’t know he was going to die
If this is true, the Prime Moron of Canada was the only one who didn’t know. There was mega media coverage of Hussein going home so that he could die in Jordan. It was widely reported that he was on life support since his return. Jean probably thinks that life support is a social program. It’s understandable that Chretien doesn’t read newspapers because it would hurt his lips too much, but you would think that with the millions of dollars we pour into CBC, he could at least glance at Snoozeworld once in a while.
Excuse No. 4 -- Jordan didn’t give me enough notice
Chretien could only have gotten to Jordan if he had enough notice and the Jordanian government reneged on their promise to give him 24 hours’ notice.
The federal government spends zillions on immigration and multiculturalism. Yet Chretien obviously knows nothing of the Muslim religion that requires burial within 24 hours of death. He would have had to have received instantaneous notification of the King’s demise. Yeah, that’s what the government of Jordan said they were going to do. Queen Noor can wait to be told - she’s not skiing, we better tell the Canadian prime minister first. Right.
Let’s give the PM the benefit of the doubt; maybe he didn’t know the King was a Muslim.
Excuse No. 5 -- Jordan’s Ambassador said it was OK
Chretien apologized to Jordan’s ambassador to Canada and the ambassador accepted his apology. What was he supposed to do? After all, the guy is a diplomat. He’s not going to start a diplomatic incident or a war over Canada’s no show. Besides a war would result in needless killing here and there--actually here because we wouldn’t be able to get there.
Excuse No. 6 -- I already went to a funeral
This was his best excuse. Like I went to my father’s funeral so why should I have to go to my mother’s? If you go to one funeral a year you don’t have to go to any others. Yes he did go to the funeral cum photo op for the Inuit that were killed by an avalanche in northern Quebec. What does that have to do with the death of King Hussein?
We’ll probably never know the real reason why Jean Chretien did not attend Hussein’s funeral. Perhaps the 65-year- old who can leap four parliamentary steps in a single bound was too tired to make the trip, especially after a hard weekend of skiing. Maybe he was too scared to go, having to risk his life by taking a military helicopter out of Whistler.
Maybe he just didn’t want to go. After all he had nothing in common with the late King. Jordan is a lot different than Canada. It is an Arabic speaking country where it is not illegal to have signs in English. Hussein was a mediator where as Chretien is an appeaser. The King constantly took risks and could have ended up like John Kennedy or Martin Luther King. The only risks that Chretien ever took could have resulted in him ending up like Michael Kennedy or Sonny Bono. The list goes on and on.
Despite often being reviled at home, Chretien’s long serving predecessors, Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulrooney, had good international reputations. On the world stage, Jean Chretien is an irrelevant little man who heads an increasingly irrelevant government in what is fast becoming an irrelevant insignificant country.