The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
This country, large in area but small in population, is still youngÑonly 137 years old. There are dozens of pubs in London far older. Because it is so young, there is not much history, few real traditions, not much pomp and ceremony, not too many genuine moving occasions that set us apart. When they do come, they should be cherished. Such a happening came when the House of Commoners said goodbye to Jean Chretien on a memorable afternoon. Yet what happened told more about his enemies than about himself. It was a wonderful hour of tributes, after Question Period closed. Full of wit and warmth with a spirit down in the chamber that demonstrated for once what the institution of Parliament can be like when the phoney made-for-TV blarney can be set aside. John Reynolds, the Canadian Alliance house leader, usually the fierce attack dog for his partyÑStephen Harper this day down in Toronto at a fund-raiserÑgave a wonderful speech, gracious and respectful. Among other things, he pointed out that Chretien in his 40 years in the Commons "had seen seven prime ministers come and Joe." That brought the place down and also brought up Joe, the speaker (and the best one) for his Tories this day. "As for your glancing remark," Clark shouted at Reynolds, "at my glancing time as prime minister, I have only one thing to sayÑthe deal's off!" This while of course Harper and the hapless Peter MacKay are in Toronto trying to cement the Unite-the-Right fandango. Chretien came into the Commons at 29 and Joe when 34 and for a timeÑwhile on opposite sides of the floorÑhad a good relationship because both were fearless and ambitious. Clark in his tribute said, as he has said before, that power has changed his old friend, not to the good, but he was effusive in his praise for a PM who loved Canada, all of Canada, and had spent his entire career attempting to keep it together. The NDP's Bill Blaikie, the burly Winnipegger with the gift of the gab as the United Church minister he is, was equally good, his clever shafts at the honoree wrapped in warmth and respect. The only sour note came, as could be expected, from the humourless Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois, who could not grasp the atmosphere of the occasion and closed by saying he would welcome Chretien on his retirement to a sovereign Quebec. No Parliamentarian, this guy. But what was most significant came next. The PM had been scribbling notes furiously throughout the previous 40 minutes of praise and sly insults. He now stood on his hind legs for 20 minutes without a note and talked about his long career in Ottawa and what it meant to him. No one would ever accuse the incumbent of eloquence, but he was elegant in style. (This comes from a scribbler who could not have always been thought of as an admirer; he once addressed the scribbler before the Parliamentary Press Gallery annual black-tie banquet as, what can only be translated politely as "Mister Effingham.") He was sincere, he was thoughtful, he pleaded with the MPs to return to real debate, without pandering to the stuff that sells newspapers but does politicians no good. And a strange thing happened. Almost the entire backbench of the Alliance disappeared. Slunk out for a coffee or a beer or whatever. A small speckle of the front bench, Reynolds and a few others remaining. And here rests the problem in this sad, confused country. The vast majority of what is Her Majesty's Official Opposition does not even have the manners, or the courtesy, of listening to a man who has fought for Canada for 40 years. Never mind that he has been prime minister for 10 yearsÑwhich has to say something for guts, considering the palaver and persiflage that so permeates this joint. Never mind that he has overcome facial disfigurement and deafness in one ear to keep a party in power for three terms. This is not exactly a Churchillian moment, to be sure, but it surely deserved some respect to the institution itself. And it is why, as god made little green apples, the Alliance people who are about to orchestrate the takeover of whatever skeletons remain of Sir John A. Macdonald's (and John Diefenbaker's) party will never achieve power. The point is that the Alliance, hived into Western Canada, is not just anti-government, but anti-Ottawa itself. (This coming from a scribe who was born in downtown Hearne, Saskatchewan, and raised in downtown Sardis, British Columbia.) Its troops in the backbenches are almost exclusively elderly white men in dark suits. With their mindset, they will never break into Ontario, where the votes are, not to even mention Quebec. What they did to Chretien on tribute day was worse than no manners. It was bush. There are some things about Parliament that are worth respecting. Otherwise, we are all savages.
