Back in the days Jean Chretien as prime minister, friends of the ruling Liberal Party in business were benefiting greatly at taxpayer expense.
Diane Francis is a pretty good writer who is not afraid to take on matters that others wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole. However, she didn’t mention one serious matter in this article that occurred during one of the most important sagas of recent Canadian politics that she has written about previously…..perhaps she wanted to stick with more current events in this article. Prior to going to Iraq, various countries were considering whether to join forces with them or not. Canada under Prime Minister Chretien chose to not join the Americans and I still remember his speech concerning this in the House of Commons. What Chretien did not reveal was that his family (through the marriage of his daughter to the son of Paul Desmerais AND the fact that Chretien himself had sat on the board of directors of Desmerais’s company called Power Corporation) had a serious financial stake in keeping Hussein in power. They were all at the trough in the oil for food scandal through the stake that Power Corp had in TotalFinaElf and millions were at stake if Hussein was deposed. Nary a word about Chretien’s personal stake in the decision has ever been mentioned other than by Diane Francis and Mark Steyn.