Justin Trudeau has a very big policy: Jean Chretien

Justin Trudeau has been criticized for his lack of concrete ideas, but former prime minister Jean Chretien said he thinks the Liberal leadership front-runner has “a very big policy” that is fundamental to Canada.

“He wants to replace the Tories,” Chretien said during an interview on the Global News program The West Block with Tom Clark.

And for Chretien, that is enough.

“I’m travelling the world. The image of Canada today is not what it was,” said Chretien, who currently works as counsel at Heenan Blaikie law firm.

“You know (Trudeau) will be fiscally responsible and he will be socially preoccupied like a Liberal is. And he will want Canada to be what we were in the world under (Lester B.) Pearson, under his father (Pierre Trudeau) and under myself. That’s big change, only that.

“It is an agenda that is tough to realize.”

But Chretien said it’s happening.

“The press wants new people so they have new people,” he said. “And when they had experience, they said it was yesterday’s man.”

Chretien knows all about experience – joking he once told a doctor to take some because he has too much.

Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of Canada – under Chretien’s watch – saying no to the Iraq War. This year also marks 20 years since his election as prime minister.

Chretien says Canada has changed since his time in government.

“It’s not the Canada that was during my time, in many ways,” said Chretien.

When asked how the country has changed, Chretien said “our international image.”

“I would (bet) you that (Prime Minister Stephen) Harper would have said yes to the war in Iraq,” said Chretien.

He also said Canada has “lost five years” on its relationship with China since Harper came to power.

Despite the differences, Chretien finds some common ground with the prime minister.

“We’re two professional politicians who love politics,” said Chretien. “We have different values – that’s all.”

But the main difference, said Chretien, is that his government had no deficit, and the Harper government does.

When Chretien said no to Iraq, it did not change the nature of his relationship with then-President George W. Bush, but he said Bush was “disappointed” by the decision.

He recalled talking with Bush and former U.K. prime minister Tony Blair, with Blair trying to persuade Chretien to support Iraq.

“And I said, you know for us, it’s clear. We’ll go there if they have the UN (support). And to have the UN you need better proof of weapons of mass destruction,” said Chretien.

“I did not see enough proof to convince the judge at the municipal court in Shawinigan that they had weapons of mass destruction, and I told him that.”

He said it would have been “intellectually dishonest” to support the decision without providing military aid.

“It was a support of their initiative that I could not accept,” said Chretien.

“There was abyss, misunderstanding or confusion, created in the United States that was not fair. Saddam (Hussein) had nothing to do with September 11. It was the Taliban from Afghanistan; Saddam was not part of that.”

Chretien said Bush was a “pleasant chap” and they talked baseball, while he was great friends with Bill Clinton.

But he told Clark he does not miss his public life.

“It’s a tough job,” he said. “You have very difficult decisions to make. There is an element of it that it is hard work. It’s a full-time job. I have respect for the people who are in politics.”

Chretien, who loved question period, said even talking to the media was fun.

“You face a challenge; you know, will I make a big mistake? You’re smiling to me but you hope me to make a big mistake so you will use it against me for the years to come,” Chretien said, laughing.

“And at the end of the day, you survive. I used to say that politics is like skating on thin ice, you never know when there will be a hole that will gobble you up and you will disappear forever. You make one blunder and you disappear. And at the end of the day, you say I survived one more day.

“So I survived something like 13,529 days, more or less.”