My years as Prime Minister

http://www.renaud-bray.com

http://www.renaud-bray.com

In the decade 1993 to 2003, Jean Chrétien won three majority elections as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. He found the country in a dreadful state, dangerously in debt and bitterly divided with Quebec. Ever the fighter, he wiped out the deficit in just four years, helped to defeat the separatists in the cliffhanger Quebec referendum, and fulfilled the economic and social promises he had made in his famous Red Book. He kept Canada out of the war in Iraq, led annual Team Canada trade tours, and participated in myriad international organizations. All the while, his archrival Paul Martin, the finance minister, kept building a team to oust him at the earliest opportunity. The knives were out, and his exit from politics was not quite as he expected.Chrétien loves to tell a good story - and he does so here in the same honest, plain-spoken style of Straight from the Heart, his account of his years as a Cabinet minister that sold well over 200,000 copies. Along with his astute comments on politics and government, he gives candid portraits of a broad cast of characters. Over a beer, Tony Blair confides his hesitation about taking Britain into the Iraq War; Bill Clinton tells him the United States can never negotiate on softwood lumber; Conrad Black makes the extraordinary offer to sit in the Senate as a Liberal if he can keep his Canadian citizenship while becoming a British peer. On a personal note, Chrétien recounts how his quick-thinking wife, Aline, saved him from a murderer one night at 24 Sussex Drive, and howhe and Clinton plotted in Britain one day to elude their bodyguards - to the consternation of all. As for the scandals - he tells them as he saw them.By the time he left office, Jean Chrétien had been in politics for forty years - and his experience is evident on every page of his memoir. He knows how government works and his political instincts are sharp. Above all, he loves his country and wants to keep it united. But he never loses his connection with ordinary Canadians - he's warm and funny, a scrapper and a prankster, a man full of vitality and charm. For all these reasons, political junkies and general readers alike will love this book.