Chrétien, (Joseph Jacques) Jean

Chrétien, (Joseph Jacques) Jean (1934- ), 20th prime minister of Canada (1993- ). Chrétien was born the 18th of 19 children in Shawinigan, Quebec province. After gaining a law degree at Laval University in Quebec, Chrétien became involved in politics. He was first elected to the Canadian Parliament in 1963; he won all nine of his re-election attempts. Chrétien became a Cabinet minister under Prime Minister Lester Pearson in 1967. In 1984 he failed to gain the Liberal Party leadership, which was won by a former Cabinet colleague John Turner. In 1986 Chrétien resigned his seat and left active politics to practise law. After Turner's resignation in 1990, Chrétien was elected to succeed him as leader of the Liberal Party. Between 1990 and 1993, Chrétien concentrated his energies on rebuilding the party, which had been out of power since 1984. In the general election held on October 25, 1993, Chrétien and the Liberals defeated the incumbent Progressive Conservative Party by an overwhelming majority, winning 177 out of the 294 seats in the House of Commons. After taking office as Prime Minister, Chrétien moved towards distancing Canada from the United States in several areas of foreign policy, and reducing the size of the federal government's annual deficit.

An opponent of Quebec's separatist movement, Chrétien made key concessions to the province, giving it a status as a "distinct society" and providing a partial constitutional veto, in the run-up to the referendum on secession from Canada in October 1995, which produced a very narrow victory for anti-secessionism. In April 1997 Chrétien called an election over a year ahead of time, hoping to gain an enhanced mandate for negotiation with separatists in Quebec. In the June 1997 poll, Chrétien's Liberal Party government was returned to power, but with a narrow majority based chiefly on support in Ontario and Quebec, after a campaign which highlighted regional divisions in Canada.