The Right Honourable

Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien does verily believe he is always right - or at least his oft-expressed opinion is that he is never wrong, and always does the right thing. A man of impeccable ethics, trustworthy and highly intelligent. Indeed. And is he honourable? Queen Elizabeth II for some arcane reason all her own appears to think so. Has she no knowledgeable advisers?

So, there it is, a rare honour for Jean Chretien, much to the satisfaction, no doubt, of his wife Aline, a tigress in defending her 'little guy' from Shawinigan. So much a 'little guy' he is, a man of the people, that he almost throttled a representative of the homeless, wishing to appeal to his better nature. Long may he search to discover that better nature. Mr. Chretien prefers pepper on his steak, he-he.

How remarkable that Britain's rare Order of Merit has been bestowed on Canada's former prime minister, representing only the fourth Canadian to be so honoured. He is in the company of outstanding individuals such as Dr. Wilder Penfield, Winston Churchill. Both long gone from the land of the living, otherwise they might wish to return their honourably-received Order of Merit.

Much as the current Conservative-led Canadian government is being accused of favouring conservative-represented ridings in the dispensation of stimulus funds by livid Liberals, it was Jean Chretien in his heyday who said: "Listen. We are the government. I don't see why we can't try to get credit for what we do. I hope we do so. There is nothing to be ashamed of that."

Small-town cheap was how Judge Gomery described Jean Chretien's golf-ball giveaways on the public dime, and he was right. All the scandals that erupted during the Chretien years, of pork barrelling and nest-feathering, really mark this man's gift to Canada, culminating in the disgrace with which he left office, in a Liberal imbroglio of advertising shenanigans. Anyway remember Adscam?

Now, the elder statesman, with his countless trips to China representing clients, Canadian companies investing there, trumpets this as a singular achievement, through his many solicitations in China for trade deals, opening doors as prime minister for his remunerative retirement past-time. Claiming it was he who opened trade doors for Canada to China.

When, in fact, it was the Right Honourable Joe Clark as foreign minister in a Conservative-led government that had done so, post Tienanmen Square. It was then, at that time, in the wake of various Conservative-government-led trade trips, principally led by then-Finance Minister Michael Wilson, that opened trade doors, and it was also then that Chinese diplomats called Canada China's best friend.

Chretien has pulled the wool over the eyes of the sycophants who have always surrounded him, but he will always be the little man from Shawinigan, a town that he favoured by pulling scarce funding from the National Gallery in Ottawa to open a Shawinigan-only gallery. He has never strayed very far from being a little man, a very Little Man.