Generally I am happy to see any Canadian win any foreign award or contest, but this one doesn't make much sense to me. Jean Chretien is awarded a rare medal at the discretion of the Queen of England? What the Hell? This just as the Catholics are trying to woo back the Anglicans? Normally I don't care about the Queen handing out hardware, but given the past winners of this award that is rarely awarded, why Chretien? What was the selection process? Did somebody go to the Queen and say that "we need to hand out an Order of Merritt, here's a list" and then they made a selection? I would like to know who Chretien was up against to win this award.
All I will say about Chretien is that while he won 3 majorities, he never defeated a united right, he had the Sponsorship Scandal, and he gets too much credit for an economic boom. Seriously, when you've got "earners" like Mike Harris and Ralph Klein working the streets of your two most economically prosperous provinces, it is hard not to be successful financially.
I think this only cements my argument as to why we should not recognize the Queen of England as our head of state.
Good questions. For a man surrounded by scandal and mismanagement of government i.e. gun registry, HRDC etc. one has to ask themselves why did he deserve this award. Being in politics for 40 years doesn't justify an award. It simply says he was a survivor. He sure didn't get it for his good looks. Wonders will never cease to amaze me.
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