Who is the most small "c" conservative political leader in Canada today? It's not Preston Manning who spends most of his time trying to unite his alternatives. And it's definitely not Joe Why (nee Joe Who), leader of the federal Partly Conservatives who's trying to recruit sovereigntists to his Liberal Party clone. It's not anyone named Mike or Ralph.
The most conservative leader on the political scene is Jean Chretien. Chretien really does not like big governments, preferring individualism and the work ethic; concepts that used to be universal, but are now confined to those on the extreme right. Why then, does Chretien lead a country that has a huge federal government with a bloated bureaucracy and that is touted as the best nanny state in the world in which to live? The answer is simple--Jean gets to run it. Why run a small grocery store when you can run a supermarket? Why buy a razor when you can buy the company? Especially when you can accomplish these things using other people's money.
Chretien never implements conservative policies. He never would have been elected had he done so. Now, a virtual dictator as a result of opposition party bickering, Chretien must introduce policies that appeal to the mushy middle in order to keep his approval ratings up. The prime minister swerved to the left in his latest cabinet shuffle. That probably had more to do with cementing his position vis a vis Paul Martin in the greatest non-leadership contest this country has ever seen. But Jean is no lefty.
the PM isn't above importing the US president to make a speech that no Liberal poltician would dare make--that Quebec is not East Timor and Quebeckers aren't ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. |
Chretien's conservatism comes out on those occasions when he does a "Lastman" and speaks without thinking. Take the town meeting that he attended a couple of years ago when a young woman complained that she couldn't find a job.
The prime minister suggested that maybe she should move to another place to find work. This is not the policy of a government that tells its citizens that if they happen to be unemployed, just stay home and the government will create a job for them.
Since the proposed Air Canada/Canadian merger hit the front pages, Transport Minister David Collenette has been assuring the masses that the feds will protect us from massive job layoffs, increased fares, cancelled routes, and aircraft that run out of peanuts. What did Jean have to say? "Let the shareholders decide." Talk about free enterprise!
Despite leading a government that spends millions of dollars to protect its citizens from anything American, Chretien was one of those that Maclean's Magazine had in mind when it came out with a cover showing a bikini clad woman on a beach under the caption "My Canada includes Florida". And the PM isn't above importing the US president to make a speech that no Liberal poltician would dare make--that Quebec is not East Timor and Quebeckers aren't ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.
Jean Chr�tien--although he is usually wrong, he is defintely "right".