Jean Chrétien

Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien OM, CC, PC, QC ( born January 11, 1934 in Shawinigan, Quebec ) is a former Canadian politician. He was Canadian Prime Minister dated 4 November 1993 to 12 December 2003 for the Liberal Party of Canada.

Career

After he was affected in his youth by the Bell's palsy, his left half of the face is paralyzed. After graduation he studied law in Quebec City at Laval University.

His political career began with his election to the Canadian House of Commons in 1963. 1966 he was Secretary of the Treasury. 1968 Chrétien was then promoted to the first still Minister for tax assessment and tax revenue in the same year to the Minister for the needs of Aboriginal and Northern Territories. Chrétien in 1974 Chief of the Treasury, two years later, Minister of Trade, 1977 to then become finance minister. In 1980 he moved to the Ministry of Justice in the Cabinet. During his tenure as Minister of Justice Jean Chrétien played a crucial role in the negotiations for the adoption of the Canadian Constitution. In 1982 he joined then again the ministries to take up the post of Minister of Energy, Mines and Natural Resources.

The first major career setback came in 1984 when Pierre Trudeau announced his resignation from the chairmanship of the Canadian Liberal Party. Chrétien competed with John Turner for the vacant party presidency, only to lose in the second round. Although Turner appointed Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrétien to, but the relationship between the two was tense. So Chrétien in 1986 they gave to all offices and announced that he would retire from public life. As Turner 1989, however, the party chairmanship gave to Chrétien announced back in order again to fight for the party chairmanship. In June 1990, he defeated Paul Martin at the Congress of Liberals in the first ballot. Also in the same year he moved again to the House.

Prime minister

In October 1993, the Liberal Party won the general election by a large majority, so that Chrétien became prime minister and his predecessor Kim Campbell of the Conservative Party replaced. He was confirmed in office in 1997 and 2000.

Chrétien saw it in his service as one of the main tasks to prevent the threat of separation of Quebec from the Canadian mainland. In the referendum of 1995, also agreed with the majority of the population of Quebec against independence. However, this majority was relatively scarce, so that Chrétien did pass a law to the independence of provinces should be made more difficult. Even the Canadian juvenile justice from the ground up has been reformed. He also made ​​himself strong for the legalization of marijuana, which he, however, did not prevail.

Also supported in Canada, under Chrétien's aegis, not the invasion of Iraq by the coalition forces led by the U.S. in 2003. Represents Canada however, together with Germany, the largest military contingent in ISAF in Afghanistan, for which Chrétien began.

Withdrawal and Pension

In 2002, Chrétien was in danger of not being re-elected as party chairman. In order to avoid an imminent defeat, he stated that he would not run for party presidency again and would give the prime minister post in January 2004. Then was elected as the new Prime Minister Paul Martin by the House in December 2003.

Chrétien is now still working as a lawyer. He has been married since 1957. He has two sons and a daughter.