Chretien was the first major party leader in Canada to gain and hold power primarily by exploiting the country's diversity. He was a divisive and insulting man who had no problem pitting east against west, english against french, and rich against poor for his own personal gain.
Don't forget we narrowly lost Quebec in 1994 under his watch, predominantly because he antagonized so many "soft federalists" in his own province. It is my strong belief that the only thing that held the country together during the Chretien era was the incompetency of the separatists, and the few strong federalist premiers that the country had at the time (Charest, Klein, McKenna).
Not to mention all of the mistakes we taxpayers paid for and will continue to pay for - cancelling/deferring infrastructure spending, cutting health care transfers to the provinces, the gun registry. One of the most shocking things about Chretien's reign was that every federal department saw cuts or modest growth - no problem there - but Indian and Northern Affairs and the Canadian Revenue Agency ballooned! Great value for the taxpayer there, Jean!
He was flat out terrible for this country.
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