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The Plot Thickens
Canoe ^ | April 6, 2003 | Paul Jackson

Posted on 04/06/2003 11:18:43 AM PDT by WaterDragon

"Obviously, I would have been happier if Canada had not been conquered in the past by the English, if this part of North America had remained French, but you can't rewrite history." -- Jean Chretien ---- Le Monde, Dec. 1, 1994

Well, doesn't that give us some insight into the mind and machinations of one Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

But, as we look at how Chretien has snubbed our American neighbours at a time when they need our support most, maybe Chretien is trying to rewrite history.

Perhaps he's pretending he really is a man of some consequence in the world, and part of his gameplan to show that is to stick Americans in the eyes.

For, in another part of that incredible interview he gave to the prestigious Paris newspaper Le Monde, Chretien talked about how French-Canadians had been "humiliated" by the English and how today they see themselves as "martyrs."

Then he boasted about how he was getting his own back on the supposed English establishment and power base.

"For example, I have just appointed an Acadian to the office of governor general. So the governor general is a francophone. The same thing is true, among others, of the prime minister, the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Speaker of the Senate, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Minister of Finance."

Do you sense in all this talk about humiliation and martyrdom both how the shoe is now on the other foot and also signs of an inferiority complex and of an appetite for revenge?

Chretien is something of a little man but, by God, the Americans aren't going to tell him what to do. He's running this country and he's going to do exactly what he wants to do.

That's even if, by undermining our largest trading partner and they decide to retaliate, he has to take this country with him.

He's standing with his partner in perfidy, one Jacques Chirac, president of France, who just may turn out to be a bigger villain than most of us already think he is.

Now, I first wrote about Chretien's interview with Le Monde in "Our PM's secret regrets" (May 11, 1997), but had forgotten all about it until a reader dug it up in French on the much fabled-Google search engine. In this day and age of the Internet, nothing disappears forever!

Anyway, the reader suggested that, as well as showing an astonishing antipathy for English-Canadians in his Le Monde interview -- quite something for a prime minister who is supposed to represent all the men and women in his nation -- Chretien opened up the inner workings of his mind.

His people have been humiliated, they are really martyrs for their cause -- and now they are going to throw their weight around. The big boy on the block, no matter how decent and kind he may have been, isn't going to be spared, either.

In the column "Off-balance,"(March 23.), I wrote that the reckless actions of Chretien suggested he had become unhinged -- mentally and emotionally unstable. That, in jeopardizing the goodwill of the nation that takes some 83% of our exports and on which 50% of our jobs depend either directly or indirectly, and in allowing his staff and MPs to hurl insults at President George W. Bush and the American people, Chretien was no longer acting in a rational manner.

Looking at the Le Monde chatter in retrospect, we get an inkling not only of Chretien's inferiority complex, but of illusions of grandeur. This is surely getting to be quite dangerous.

There may be yet another aspect to Chretien's strange behaviour. National Post columnist Diane Francis, who, in another era was one of the Calgary Sun's most popular columnists, recently wrote Chretien had become a "dupe" of Jacques Chirac, and that Chirac was in the pocket of Saddam Hussein because France's largest corporation, TotalFinaElf has huge interests in Iraq's oilfields. Interests that will be blown apart if Saddam is toppled, and U.S. and British oil companies given concessions by a grateful people.

Now for more intrigue: Francis says Total's biggest single shareholder is Montreal's Paul Desmarais, whose youngest son is married to Chretien's daughter. Desmarais Sr., is also a director of Total, along with other ranking members of France's establishment. It's hard to believe the Desmarais/Chretien families haven't discussed their investments in Total, and Total's investments in Saddam's Iraq.

All above board, of course.

Yet to suspicious minds, the plot thickens -- and gets scarier by the day.

Click here for complete article.


TOPICS: Canada; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: antienglish; bully; chirac; chretien; corruption; martyrdom; plot

1 posted on 04/06/2003 11:18:43 AM PDT by WaterDragon
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To: WaterDragon
Such a pea-brained, petty man to be leading a vast nation like Canada.
2 posted on 04/06/2003 11:19:29 AM PDT by WaterDragon (Only America has the moral authority and the resolve to lead the world in the 21st Century.)
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To: WaterDragon
The pea soup thickens...
3 posted on 04/06/2003 11:23:25 AM PDT by Tulsa Brian
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To: WaterDragon
His ARROGANCE WILL ALSO

go before a fall.

And may he splatter further than a cow pissing on a flat rock.

[ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/886389/posts ]

--Which references a General referencing such a metaphor.
4 posted on 04/06/2003 11:32:30 AM PDT by Quix (QUALITY RESRCH STDY BTWN BK WAR N PEACE VS BIBLE RE BIBLE CODES AT MAR BIBLECODESDIGEST.COM)
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To: WaterDragon
these lame brains lost the battle on the Plains of Abraham over 225 years ago and they are STILL making the rest of the country dance to their tune...Canada is a perfect example why you don't want to let reverse discrimination pass...

BTW...Laurie Dhue....huhuhuhuhuhh.......hmmmmmmmmm.
5 posted on 04/06/2003 11:37:44 AM PDT by Keith
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To: WaterDragon
The other provinces of Canada should declare Quebec an independent nation, and petition immediately to the US Government for statehood.

Yeah, right. Like that isn't ALREADY every Canadian's worst nightmare.
6 posted on 04/06/2003 11:40:12 AM PDT by alloysteel
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To: WaterDragon
As an American born and raised in Canada, I am not pleased with the criticisms against Chretien based solely on trade and economics. The are larger principles at stake: the Iraqi people have been subjugated under the iron grip of a modern-day Stalin; Iraq has subverted the United Nations by regeging on at least 17 UN resolutions. On these two facts alone, which even Chretien himself has acknowledged, Canada should be supporting the US and UK rather than standing aside hurling childish insults. Chretien, like Schroder and Chirac, are appealing to the latent, hypocritical anti-Americanism in their respective constituencies. The fact that these "leaders" have attempted to throw the Iraqi people and the future viability of the UN under the bus is simply sickening. You see, in Canada, multi-culturalism is celebrated vigorously, as long as one of the cultures isn't American. To many Canadians, it is better to be anti-American than anti-dictatorship. Too bad for the more clear conservative Canadians that they have no real choice other than Chretien since the conservative parties there won't come together and produce a unified alternative.
7 posted on 04/06/2003 11:48:29 AM PDT by AC86UT89
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To: WaterDragon
And as Paul Harvey would say: Now we know the rest of the story.
8 posted on 04/06/2003 11:54:13 AM PDT by hobson
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To: WaterDragon
Such a pea-brained, petty man to be leading a vast nation like Canada.

There must have been many Canadians from provinces other than Quebec that voted for Jean Chretien as there were many in Quebec that did not vote for Chretien. Canada wanted a Liberal and the got one.

I think that they vote for Quebecois because if a Conservative becomes P.M. Quebec immediately starts making noises that it wants to quit Canada.

9 posted on 04/06/2003 11:54:16 AM PDT by Mike Darancette (Soddom has left the bunker.)
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To: AC86UT89
Excellent comments, AC. Thanks. But remember that American conservatives were also divided and apathetic during the Clinton years. That is not necessarily a permanent condition. What is required is enough rejection of all that the socialists represent. Critical mass.
10 posted on 04/06/2003 11:59:22 AM PDT by WaterDragon (Only America has the moral authority and the resolve to lead the world in the 21st Century.)
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To: hobson
Yeah. Chretien hates most of the Canadians just like Clinton despised most Americans.
11 posted on 04/06/2003 12:00:16 PM PDT by WaterDragon (Only America has the moral authority and the resolve to lead the world in the 21st Century.)
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To: WaterDragon
'Critical mass."

Yeah. The PCs and Alliance should have a joint convention, and select Lew MacKenzie as Leader.

Then we'd have a shot at busting the Liberals right in the chops.

;^)
12 posted on 04/06/2003 12:22:23 PM PDT by headsonpikes
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To: AC86UT89
since the conservative parties there won't come together and produce a unified alternative.

Sounds like the single-issue, small tent conservatives in the US.  They are their own worst enemy.  In the case of Canada, their intransigence doesn't absolve them of complicity in keeping this man in power.  Taking back their country has to be job one, and it obviously isn't.
13 posted on 04/06/2003 12:23:52 PM PDT by gcruse (If they truly are God's laws, he can enforce them himself.)
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To: WaterDragon
Sounds like the the French puke Chretien has declared war (hundreds of years later) on the English speaking Canadians. If I lived in Canada I'd accept the invitation. Remember, these are FRENCH people - nothing to fear.

Every public sign I saw in French would be fair game to either tear down or white wash. I'd be working to cut lose from Quebec and all it's snotty French scum. Let them live off of the tit of France and its table scraps, out there in the corner of the North American continent. They can rot there for all I care.

14 posted on 04/06/2003 1:18:43 PM PDT by MCH
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To: WaterDragon
Executive Summary:

Know why Canadians make love dog style?

ans: So they both can watch the hockey game!
15 posted on 04/06/2003 1:27:57 PM PDT by TRY ONE (")
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To: WaterDragon
My son is studing Canada, and we were looking for a monument to present to his class. This is our choice, the description was quite funny. They are really more like the French than the English. We chose Commonwealth Air Force Memorial. For a cute laugh go to the website and read about this memorial

http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/attractions/monuments/airforce_memorial_e.html
16 posted on 04/06/2003 6:08:56 PM PDT by GoreNoMore
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To: GoreNoMore
That monument is quite attractive! It's too true that airmen often die during training, or did back then. My flight instructor many years ago was a WASP, and she and other WASPs trained new men pilots during WWII. Also, those ferrying jobs could be mighty hairy at times!!!
17 posted on 04/07/2003 1:07:27 AM PDT by WaterDragon (Only America has the moral authority and the resolve to lead the world in the 21st Century.)
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