Jean Chrétien

Jean Chretien got married to Aline Chaine in September 1957 and has three children with her; a daughter, France, and two sons, Hubert and Michel Chretien. Their daughter, France Chretien, is a successful lawyer.

Born in Quebec, Canada on 11th January 1934, Jean Chretien was one of the 19 kids of Marie and Wellie Chretien. His father was a keen Canadian nationalist and was supportive of war efforts during the Second World War, making him a controversial yet very influential figure. This was in the 40s, when most of the Canadian-French people were against the war and yet, Wellie held strongly on to his principles, which established him as a strong headed man, and turned their family into outcasts.

Jean Chretien inherited this strong will and a penchant for aggression from his father and was a feared young man in the neighbourhood, who would never back away from fights and could easily scare off the guys much older than him. One of his classmates from the school recalls that Jean was a violent kid and used to bully his weaker classmates, just for fun.

At the age of 12 Jean suffered from a condition called Bell’s palsy, which caused one side of his face getting a little paralyzed. But Jean, being too confident a man always joked about it and never took it seriously. He loved reading and talking politics, and even during his time at school, he would take part in rallies and distribute pamphlets for his favourite politician’s campaigns.

In 1959, Jean graduated in law from Laval University and started working with Shawinigan political firm. However, his support for the Liberal Party and keen eye on politics never wavered and he started making his way into Canadian politics while resuming his law practices in the early 60s.

In the year 1963, Jean Chretien fought the elections for a seat in House of Commons and won it, and supported the Liberal Party with everything he had. He got the entry into the cabinet of the then Prime Minister Lester Pearson and was later appointed as the minister of national revenue. His portfolio expanded when Pierre Trudeau became the Prime Minister and Jean handled the Treasury board, industry, trade, commerce, finance, energy, mines and resources along with aboriginal affairs.

In 1980, Jean became the minister of Justice and kept growing in stature, which was due to his sharp intellect and hardworking nature. His emotional and strong speeches were extremely popular among the locals in Quebec and outside. One such bold step was taken during his tenure as the Minister of Justice, when he played a huge role in patriation of Canadian constitution along with the enactment of Charters of Rights and Freedom.

Such was his aura among his peers and the general population of Canada that Jean became one of the strong contenders for the leadership of the Liberal Party in mid 80s. John Turner was the top contender to become the leader and rightly so, he was officially appointed as the head of the party in 1986.

A little bit disappointed with this, Jean resigned his seat in House of Commons and practiced law privately for some time. He said that he wanted to focus on himself for some time and also during this time, and also worked on his autobiography which was named ‘Straight from the Heart’ and became a bestseller as soon as it was released.

Following his second defeat against the conservatives, John Turner resigned from the leadership in 1990 and this time, even though Jean faced tough competition from Paul Martin, he successfully became the party leader and also resumed his position in the House of Commons.