Prime Minister Jean Chrétien had gone so far as to “give the order” to serve potatoes in five consecutive meals to President George W. Bush to convince him to lift an embargo on imports of potatoes from the United States. Prince Edward Island, which Washington had “apparently” declared following the discovery of a “bébitte”.
The former Prime Minister of Canada recounts the scene at To have to. “They still serve us potatoes from Prince Edward Island”, had whispered Secretary of State Colin Powell in Mr. Bush’s ear, a few hours before the end of the Summit. Americas in Quebec (2001). Mr. Chrétien then declared to the new tenant of the White House: “It’s been five times since you ate it and you haven’t died!” “
The United States announced days later that potatoes from Prince Edward Island could cross the border again. “That’s good politics, isn’t it? »Says Mr. Chrétien, quite proud of his diplomatic and gastronomic coup 20 years ago. “There was no committee, no consultations with academics and journalists,” he said, during an interview surrounding the launch of his book. My new stories (La Presse editions).
During the Chrétien years (1993-2003), Canada notably gave impetus to the Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention (1997) and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998), in addition to serving on the Council United Nations Security Council (1998–2000).
He agreed to deploy his military forces in operations approved by the UN (Balkans) or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (Afghanistan), but refused outright to dispatch them. in Iraq.
When Jean Chrétien turned his back on politics in 2003, the magazine The Economist featured a moose with trendy glasses and the headline “Canada’s New Spirit”. Canada’s international personality subsequently faded. “There was a deterioration when the Conservatives were in power, and then we do not come back [toujours] not, ”says Jean Chrétien.
Despite the election of Justin Trudeau (2015) – whom he describes as “the star of selfie, which made young people vibrate with emotion in places as far away as the Philippines and Thailand ”- Canada suffered the humiliation of being refused a seat on the United Nations Security Council for the second time in a row.
The former Canadian politician has kept his entries in presidential palaces or offices of heads of government around the world over the years. However, he was having difficulty reaching his successor Justin Trudeau or members of his bodyguard after the arrest of Chinese businesswoman Meng Wanzhou in Canada in the wake of an extradition request from the United States, then the kidnapping of Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor by Chinese police. His appeals to the Prime Minister’s Office were ignored. “It was a Trump trap,” Mr. Chrétien quickly understood. “These poor guys, who stayed three years [dans une cellule] the lights on, could have gone out a month later by exchanging prisoners, ”he maintains.
In My new stories, he says he was able to give his opinion to Chrystia Freeland – the second of the five foreign ministers appointed by Justin Trudeau since coming to power in the fall of 2015 – whom he had stumbled upon on a plane. “She was stuck. She couldn’t save herself, ”he points out to the To have to, while sketching a broad smile. The meeting was not followed up.
“Lack of gas”
Today, Canadian diplomacy “lacks gas,” says researcher at the Center for International Studies and Research at the University of Montreal (CERIUM) Jocelyn Coulon. “Under Jean Chrétien, it was not at all the same thing,” he argues. “Between 1945 and the beginning of the 2000s, we were an actor on the international scene, whereas today, we are an observer of the international scene”, summarizes the former political adviser to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion ( 2016-2017). In the stands reserved for spectators, Canada suffered the diplomatic thaws of China, Russia, India, not to mention those of its allies, who fired the secretary general, then the administrator of the International Organization of La Francophonie – two Canadian women -, in addition to rejecting the candidacy of the former Minister of Finance Bill Morneau to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Jocelyn Coulon is “nostalgic” for the times of Lester B. Pearson (1948-1957), Joe Clark (1984-1991) and Lloyd Axworthy (1996-2000), when Canada was “daring” on the international stage, or even ” risks “. However, Canadian diplomacy, at the instigation of the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, has withdrawn behind the “North American fortress”, leaving in particular Africa, which has no less than “54 votes in the country”. United Nations General Assembly ”.
Despite the arrival of Mélanie Joly at Global Affairs Canada, Jocelyn Coulon continues to deplore the “illegibility of Canadian foreign policy” of the Trudeau years.
For his part, Jean Chrétien does not harbor illusions: his book My new stories never will [pas] win prizes at the Académie de la langue française ”. The important thing is that “people understand the language I use”.
With Boris Proulx