Ok so it is official Jean Chrietien has just announced he will not seek another term and will be retiring Feb 2004.
Obviously a typical Jean Chretien move to silence the uprising in caucus. Might even work as he has been very astute at cutting his would be successors down by an unexpected move.
So Has he been in office too long and should he step down now or do you think he should do as he said and ride out the rest of his mandate?
Not Canadian, but nobody else is here yet so I’ll take the opportunity to stick my Yankee oar in… 
Well, the trouble with staying at the dance after you’ve begun to realize that nobody is going to dance with you is that if you do leave, everybody notices you leaving, and they all know exactly why you’re leaving. The best thing to do, IMO, is to stay at the dance until it’s officially over, and then go home. That way you can pretend you don’t care that nobody likes you.
So, if he steps down now and doesn’t finish his term, doesn’t it look like he’s leaving early because he knows that nobody likes him?
I think he should stay, and I’m assuming that he’s astute enough to know better than to while away the time till 10:00 by chatting with the chaperones over by the refreshment table…
true social death
Absolutely. As an Aislin cartoon pointed out, Chretien’s legacy will be that no other PM tried as hard to leave a legacy. However, if you view his goal as cutting Paul Martin off at the knees, then staying until 2004 is a terrific way to do that. It’s pretty obvious that he’s grooming John Manley to be his successor (Prime Minister Beaker!) and by February of 2004, Martin will have been out of cabinet for almost 2 years and 65 years old. I don’t see the Liberal party jumping from a 70 year old leader to a 65 year old leader as a way of invigorating the party. Then again, they’ll likely win no matter who they install as leader (except maybe Shelia Copps).
Barring some bizzare turn of events, 4 of the 5 leaders of the major political parties of Canada will have a new leader for the next election (Is Giles Duceppe relevant anymore?). Has this ever happened?
One day was too long for Cretien. The man has gone out of his way, trying to do the wrong thing. Through his constant lying and manipulation, he’s managed to con voters in Central/Eastern Canada into thinking that a conservative p.o.v.=pure evil, and common sense=facism.
If only any of the Liberals were any better.
I guess ol’ Jean can now dedicate 100% of his time to kiddie porn.
My God My wife calls him Beaker too… That’s hilarious.
SnowDog I think the Kiddieporn comment is a bit much.
Also I think you totally misunderstand the Voters of the East and Central Canada if you think Chretien soured us on Conservatism like that expressed by members of the Alliance.
The Canadian Alliance Party did that themselves with a piss poor leadership and vocal yahoos in their membership which undermined any sense that the party could be moderate.
My guess is that this is a set up for that Weasle Brian Tobin.
He disappears before the mud slinging starts, he remains absent in the 18 months that the party tears itself apart and voila as soon as the leadership comes up he ends his retirement all sparkling clean to be Canada’s first Newfie P.M.
Whaaaaa…? I’m no fan of Chretien’s, and I’m glad to see him go, but I don’t think implying that he’s a pedophile will help your cause much. Who’s trying to convince people that the other side is “pure evil” here?
And I don’t think that the Liberals did try to convince the Eastern voters that conservatism is evil, seeing as how they’re a fiscally conservative party themselves. They are guilty of fearmongering about the social conservatism of the CA, but as kingpengvin said, the CA didn’t exactly refute those charges. The yahoos in their caucus generated more negative PR than an army of Warren Kinsellas could have.
Remember when Rob Anders blocked the House from honouring Nelson Mandela, and called him a terrorist? Or when Stephen harper, now leader of the CA, proposed erecting an “economic firewall” around Alberta, during the last election campaign?
People don’t forget that kind of thing, and that is what has hurt the conservative movement in this country, not the lies of Chretien.
Chretien has been an absolute disaster. His government is by far the most corrupt Canadian government we’ve had since I can remember. His government has almost destroyed Canada’s military.
I’m not even sure what Chretien stands for, other than keeping his sorry ass in power. He doesn’t seem to have a coherent philosophy beyond using government to help out friends.
The day he’s finally out of government I plan to do a little happy dance. Unfortunately, it’s entirely possible that his successor will be worth.
This is what happens when the people can’t mount an effective opposition to a sitting government. The Alliance and the PC’s self-destructed, leaving no credible challengers to the liberals. As a result they’ve gotten lazy and corrupt. Remember that the next time you complain about your two-party system in the U.S. - it’s a LOT worse when there’s only one.
Have we forgotten Mulroney already? Ah well, so much for his obsession with posterity…
Yes, Chretien has stayed too long, but only as the leader of the Liberal Party… not as Prime Minister… what were the alternatives? I’ll go to my grave saying we were better off with him than, oh, Preston Manning, or Stockwell “I’ve- got- my-foot-in-my-mouth-again” Day…
I guess my question about the state of our country’s politics would be, “Who would you rather dance with… your sweaty, groping uncle, or your sweaty, groping aunt?”
John
I’m not sure if it is the most courrupt Govenrment The Tory under Mulroney years had some questionable transactions.
Let’s hope the opposition gets its act together by 2005 only if it is just to keep the Liberals honest.
By the way I think Chretien did the right thing in staying to the end of his mandate. That is what he was elected to do.
Fatwater Fewl Which is the Aunt and which is the Uncle?
Well I’m sad to see that Chretien go. He’s been around damn near 40 years in parliament, faithfully and loyally serving his country and leaders, Pearson and Trudeau, before taking the reins himself. My daddy says before you can become a good leader, you’ve got to be a good follower. The Chretien years have been the most prosperous and uneventful in modern Canadian times. As a small c conservative myself, I ironically find Chretien’s government more typical of a conservative fiscal and social approach. Remember it was Mulroney who gave us Free Trade and the hated GST.
Paul Martin can kiss my ass. His constant behind the scenes sabotage of Chretien was just selfish. Canada will be in a real pickle if that egomaniac ever becomes Prime Minister.
Yes, Chretien did stay too long.
He had a tendency to call elections far sooner than they should have occurred. Prior to his third majority victory he literally had NO agenda to announce at his conference announcing the election.
By announcing that he will retire in eighteen months time he is attempting to circumvent the democratic processes of the Liberal Party. This coming from the Prime Minister who the day before lauded the inherent “superiority of democracy” in the parliamentarian system we have in Canada. And then he goes and behaves in the complete opposite manner!
And God help Canada if Brian Tobin ever becomes Prime Minister. I don’t need my hard earned salary taken away from me by high taxes so that more Maritimers can collect benefits without working. Paul Martin finally proved to Canadians that we simply CANNOT go on forever (ok, decade after decade after decade) living off of borrowed money. IT CAN’T BE DONE!!!
cough Sorry for the rant.
Gobal Citizen
The only way to tell Aunt from Uncle is to grope back. Sad, isn’t it?
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Hi, Global Citizen , I’m a Maritimer. I work as a baker, and in a bar, in order to be able to eat and keep a roof over my head. And I may be the laziest person I know. Truly.
You might want to open your eyes and mind and take a look around you before you start spouting – or should I say regurgitating? – the cliched Reform/Alliance/Mike Harris vitriol.
You do realize you posted that prejudicial pap in the GD forum of the SDMB where fighting ignorance, not feeding it, is the goal?**
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John
I think Mulroney gets a bad rap for the above. If these things were so bad, Chretien has had 10 years to get rid of them now.
Free Trade works and would work better if we could get the States to hold up to their end of the deal (or rather, stop granting the boneheaded wishes of several midwestern governors searching for reelection).