September 8, 2003
Having been a student of politics for well over 3 decades now, I have come to a disturbing conclusion: The Prime Minister of Canada is losing it! While I am not a psychiatrist, or even a health care professional, I nevertheless draw this conclusion on the basis of his pronouncements over the past few years.
Jean Chretien has not always been mentally incapacitated, as is evidenced by some of the good works that can be ascribed to him over his political career. He has been a brilliant strategist, and a formidable opponent to the likes of Joe Clark and Preston Manning. He has unswervingly led his party along the path to victory, and would continue to do so, if only his cohorts in the Liberal Party of Canada would allow him. However, it is my suspicion that they too have recognized Chretien’s mental deficits, and are anxiously awaiting his being put out to pasture before he can do any more real harm.
It first occurred to me that Chretien was a few panes shy of a French door when he began relating tales of an imaginary homeless friend, with whom he had spent time on the streets talking about homelessness and the economy. During his trip to the Middle East, he managed to offend everyone he came into contact with, and managed to make Canada look like a third world dictatorship at the same time--kind of like Uganda under the late Idi Amin, who was also mentally challenged due to disease. There was the episode concerning the Dead Sea, and whether or not Israel should have access to it. "Sure," he responded, "I ‘tink everyone should have deir lake" In the kafuffle between Israel, Lebanon, and Syria, he managed to offend all three parties. Then, there is his refusal to attend King Hussein of Jordan’s funeral because he had a golf game booked for that day. The famous faux pas that unbelievably came out of his mouth on September 11, 2002, wherein he blamed the Americans for the World Trade Center outrage, and alienated the Canadian widow of one victim, made up my mind about his mental state. (Not "I’m sorry this happened. Our thoughts are with you.") Don’t forget is his assertion that "…da proof is da proof…," which caused more than a few raised eyebrows. Finally, there is the almost wanton and consistent alienation of our closest allies, the Americans and the Brits.
Recently, he bragged about how he ran a better economy than George Bush. Gee, that was helpful to our relations with the Americans, but the kicker was that immediately following his pronouncement, both the Bank of Canada and the UN disabused him of his delusion by respectively pointing out that our economy is slowing at a dangerous pace, and that Canada has moved from number one to number eight (behind the U.S.) as the world’s best place to live.
Surely Chretien realizes that if it were not for the Americans, we would not be able to enjoy our current standard of living, nor could we afford our much-vaunted health care system because we would have to spend significantly on defense instead of health.
Politicians are famous for flip-flops, and even the staunchest and most stalwart have been known to do so. However, none have been more erratic and more consistently inconsistent than our Prime Minister, Jean Chretien. I suppose it is a reflection on the mental health of Canada as a country to have a Prime Minister who is clearly in the throes of some unfortunate mental distress. Let’s hope that the Liberal party handlers can keep him under control these last few months until he retires, before he does any more damage.