Editorial»
Decade sets Canada apart
NOV 15 - The departing prime minister, Jean Chrétien, has defended his decisions to keep Canadian troops out of Iraq, push for gay marriage and liberal drug laws.
In an interview this week, he made clear his lasting differences with the Bush administration.
“I don’t think a kid of 17 years old who has a joint should have a criminal record,” he said flatly on Monday in the broad-ranging interview in his elegant official residence as he prepared to retire after 10 years in office.
While careful not to gloat about his decision not to send Canadian troops, Chrétien was not apologetic, either. “Of course he was not happy,” he said, recalling President George W. Bush’s obvious displeasure. “I did not expect him to send me flowers.”
Democracy will “take time to penetrate in the spirit of the people” in Iraq, he said. In the meantime, he advised bringing the reconstruction effort under United Nations auspices, similar to that in Afghanistan, where Canada has 2,000 troops.
Chrétien insisted that “relations are not bad at all” with the United States, and he still keeps a photograph of himself and Bush in the foyer of his residence on the Ottawa River.
But his positions left him clearly at odds with Washington on issues defining the core values of the two nations, ranging from Iraq and his support for the Kyoto climate treaty, to his proposals to expand marriage rights and decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.
Such stances may well mark Chrétien, 69, in history as a social activist and a leader who helped define the Canadian character as separate from that of the United States, a legacy that even he seemed surprised by.
Remarking on his decision on gay marriage, which he arrived at after two provincial courts ruled that the federal definition of marriage as union between a man and a woman was discriminatory, he said, “If you told me I would do that, I would not have believed you,” adding, “I’m a practicing Roman Catholic.”
At the same time, Chrétien seemed comfortable with Canada’s social liberalism. His government has authorized the opening of a supervised heroin injection clinic in Vancouver and the distribution of methadone and heroin in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver to hard-core drug users beginning in January in an effort at curbing overdoses, crime and the spread of AIDS.
“I’m happy we are experimenting,” he said. “I’d like to find out if there is not a better way than to fill the jails with people involved with drugs. It’s not solving the problem.”
During his tenure Chrétien has brought a near bankrupt federal government back to solvency, doubled the size of the national park system, reformed campaign financing and championed increased international aid to Africa.
When he kept his army out of Iraq, he became the first Canadian leader to refuse to send troops to a war being fought by this country’s two closest traditional allies, the United States and Britain.
On Friday he gives up the leadership of the Liberal Party to his political nemesis, former Finance Minister Paul Martin. Martin has promised to improve the “tone” of the relationship with Washington. But he has applauded Chrétien’s position on the Iraq war, said he will support changing the marijuana laws and agreed to follow the court rulings to legalize same-sex marriage.
The New York TimesPosted on: 2003-11-14 08:54
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