Chretien and Chrises
- Mulroney
retires in 1993, leading to a two person race between Kim Campbell and
Jean Charest, Campbell won becoming the first woman prime minister of
Canada on June 25th, 1993. But she commanded a very beaten party that soon became
a nuisance to her, and led to an October vote that led to the retaining of
2 Torrie seats, a similar fate met the NDP which held only 9 seats.
- The
vote elected Jean Chretien as the new prime minister, who was a protégé of
Trudeau and was head of the Liberal Party since 1990, he was backed by a
party that had won 177 seats (mostly from Ontario). The Reform party also gained
strength by filling the void in the West left by the Conservatives.
Mastering the Deficit
- Chrétien
turned most of his attention to clearing away the massive debt he had
inherited from the Mulroney / Campbell era. He was assisted by Martin. The
government began a program of deep cuts to provincial transfers and other
areas of government finance. During his tenure as Prime Minister, a $42 billion
deficit was eliminated, five consecutive budget surpluses were recorded,
$36 billion in debt was paid down, and taxes were cut by $100 billion
(cumulatively) over 5 years, the largest tax cut in Canadian history.
There were, however, undeniable costs associated with this endeavour. The
cuts would result in fewer government services, most noticeably in the
health care sector, as major reductions in federal funding to the
provinces meant significant cuts in service delivery. Moreover, the
across-the- board cuts affected the operations and achievement of the
mandate of most federal departments. Many of the cuts would be restored in
later years of Chrétien's period in office.
- One of
Chrétien's main focuses in office was preventing the separation of the province
of Quebec, which was ruled by the separatist Parti Québécois for nearly
the Prime Minister's entire term.
The 1995 Quebec Referendum
- After
the 1995 referendum very narrowly defeated a proposal on Quebec
sovereignty, the government passed what became known as the Clarity Act,
which said that no Canadian government would acknowledge a Quebec
declaration of independence unless a "clear majority" supported
sovereignty in a referendum based on a "clear question", as
defined by the Parliament of Canada. The size of a "clear
majority" was left unspecified, but the Supreme Court of Canada made
it clear that such a majority would not be "50% plus one vote".
Canada’s Role in the World
- Ouellet
was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by the new prime minister, Jean
Chrétien. Despite his experience, Ouellet was not popular in Quebec, and
the lasting legacy of the Charlottetown Accord hurt him. After the close
result of the 1995 Quebec referendum, Chrétien wanted to present a new
face of his government in Quebec. In 1996, Chrétien appointed Ouellet to
head Canada Post Corporation. Ouellet's seat in the Canadian House of
Commons was taken by Pierre Pettigrew in a by-election later that year.
A New Economic Paradigm
- Free trade was hurting the already poor unemployment rates in Ontario and much of western Canada, which was being hurt by a struggling Asian market. As Canada rose out of this mini depression, they saw the collapse of Newfoundlands fish market as well as the fishing industry in the West. Logging cutback on restoration to combat the tropical threat, angering environmentalists. Market competition forced the price of wheat into the ground.
- In 1993, the Liberals began to fill jobs by getting Canadians to take minimum wage positions. American influence began the invasion of multinationals, taking over the largest Canadian corporations. The huge industrial change for the Canadian economy was the shift from resources and manufactured goods to the much more optimistic information management industry. Ultimately the Canadian government had not accomplished the economic stability and freedom that it tried to gain, and ended up failing the entire population.
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