Former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien was very, very cautious about the outcome of the federal election. He formally refused to predict a victory for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals on Friday.
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“Obviously elections are elections. We have surprises and sometimes it’s predictable. So I did 12 and then it’s never over until it’s over, he limited himself to saying. However, his restraint does not apply to the Liberal candidate for his riding of Saint-Maurice-Champlain, François-Philippe Champagne, of whom he is “sure he will win”.
On the issue of residential schools, Jean Chrétien had not yet spoken, he had already acted as Minister of Indian Affairs for Canada.
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“He argues that this is a way of doing things that prevailed a hundred years ago, that the last boarding schools closed under his reign as Prime Minister, and above all that we should not judge the past with a glance of ‘today.
“It’s hard to rewrite history. I was not good at it because I believed that my role was not to correct the past, but to build the future. Except that the fashion, not only in Canada, but everywhere, is to rewrite the past, ”he lamented.
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“Mr. Chrétien said he himself was a boarder in communities for 14 years.
“I was there for 14 years and I never liked it either. I had to go there because of my mother’s health and then they gave me, I think, a fairly good education. ”Jean Chrétien was honored on Friday for having created the Mauricie National Park. 51 years ago as federal minister.
At 87 he appeared in good shape with all his liveliness and all his memory. He will also publish in a month a fourth book recounting other memories of his 40 years in politics.
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