ugnet_: Quick Facts:JEAN CHRETIEN (Out going Canadian Prime Minister)

Sun, 16 Nov 2003 09:19:56 -0800

NDEPTH: JEAN CHR�TIEN
Quick Facts
Compiled by Randi Druzen, CBC News Online | November 12, 2003
Pierre Trudeau, John Turner, Jean Chr�tien and Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson on April 4, 1967 (Photo courtesy of the National Library of Canada and National Archives of Canada).
 Playing foosball at Camp Julien in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2003. (Image courtesy of Department of National Defence)
 On the Mike Bullard Show in 2001 (Photo courtesy of the PMO).
 Hitting the slopes in 2000 (Photo courtesy of the PMO).
 Hamming it up with Blues Brother Dan Aykroyd in 1999 (Photo courtesy of the National Library of Canada and National Archives of Canada).

  • Chr�tien is born on Jan. 11, 1934, the birthday of Sir John A. Macdonald (b. 1815).

  • Chr�tien's parents are Wellie, a paper mill worker, and Marie.

  • A birth defect leaves Chr�tien with a misshapen mouth and without hearing in his right ear.

  • Eleven of his siblings die in infancy. Another eight survive.

  • As a boy, Chr�tien helps his father, who is active in the Liberal party, by handing out flyers and attending rallies.

  • Chr�tien is kicked out of the Boy Scouts.

  • The director of his boarding school writes to his parents, lamenting the unruly behaviour of Chr�tien and two siblings. "I don't want them back again, not one of them," the director writes. "I've had enough."

  • Once, in his 20s, Chr�tien yells at a parish priest outside a church using a loudspeaker. He's angry that the priest has encouraged locals to support Maurice Duplessis's Union Nationale.

  • Chr�tien becomes a member of Parliament in 1963. He arrives in Ottawa barely able to speak English, so he reads the American magazine Newsweek cover to cover and practises speaking English with anyone who is willing.

  • In 1995, a man breaks into the prime minister's official residence armed with a pocketknife. The prime minister prepares to defend himself with an Inuit statue.

  • In 1996, Chr�tien, wearing a black overcoat and sunglasses, puts a protester who gets too close in a chokehold. Aline fears her husband will be forced to resign, but the public thrills to images of the "Shawinigan headlock" (aka the "Shawinigan handshake").

  • Golf is such a passion of the prime minister, he asks organizers of the 2001 Bell Canadian Open if he can get in the pro-am group with defending champion Tiger Woods. He clears it beforehand with top Canadian golfer Mike Weir.


        Protester Evan Brown slams Chr�tien with a cream pie in Charlottetown in 2001.


        Cajoling a koala at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Coolum, Australia, March 4, 2002 (Photo courtesy of the PMO).
      • Chr�tien tells the press he has a 13 handicap. However, a Globe and Mail story says his handicap is 15.

      • Chr�tien's other passions include reading history, philosophy and biographies. He listens to classical music.

      • At McDonalds, Chr�tien orders a Big Mac, large fries with no ketchup, and cola.

      • He loves eating lamb kidneys.


          "The MacPatriation Brothers" by Roy Peterson
          Copyright Roy Peterson (originally appeared in the Vancouver Sun, October 28, 1981)
          Photo courtesy of the National Archives of Canada




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