II.

Early Life

Chrétien was born in the small Québec town of La Baie Shawinigan, near the city of Shawinigan on the shore of the Saint-Maurice River. He was the 18th of 19 children (10 died in infancy) born to Wellie and Marie Chrétien, French-speaking Canadians whose Québec roots extended back several generations. Wellie Chrétien was employed in the community’s principal industry, working as a machinist at a newsprint mill. Like his father before him, Wellie was an organizer for the Liberal Party.

Although the Chrétien family’s means were limited, Wellie and Marie were determined that their children receive good educations. Jean was sent to a boarding school for his primary education. At age 13, he was enrolled in a seminary college, a Roman Catholic boarding school in which students could receive both a high school and university education. Chrétien chafed under the strict discipline enforced by the priests who ran the seminary and was in frequent conflict with his teachers.

Over the course of eight years, he was sent to three different seminary colleges. Chrétien impressed other students with his independence and the force of his personality. He settled down to serious study in the last three years of his college education and graduated from Saint Joseph Seminary in Trois Rivières in 1954. He entered the law school at Université Laval in Sainte-Foy, a suburb of Québec City, and received his law degree in 1958. He married Aline Chaîné in 1957.

From a very young age, Chrétien helped his father in election campaigns. By age 14 he was attending political rallies, and at 16 he was making political speeches. At Université Laval Chrétien began pursuing his political career in earnest. He was elected president of his class and the campus association of the Liberal Party. In 1958 he was a delegate at the Liberal Party’s national leadership convention and was elected vice president of the party’s national youth federation.

In 1959 Chrétien joined a Shawinigan law firm, where he quickly established a successful practice. Chrétien remained interested in politics and started preparing to run for public office. He joined the Liberals’ local association and began to form a network of people that would later serve as the foundation for his political organization.

In 1963 the Liberal Party nominated Chrétien for the federal Parliament seat representing the Saint-Maurice-LaFlèche district, which encompassed Shawinigan and a number of small neighboring communities. Chrétien used an intentionally folksy style in his campaign to reach out to the large working-class population in his district. “I have always had to pay a political price among the intellectuals of Québec for using slang, emotions, and jokes in my speeches, but the Saint-Maurice Valley was a region of populist politicians famous for their colorful style,” Chrétien wrote in his 1985 memoir, Straight from the Heart. “Since I had to fight populists, I learned from them and even tried to outdo them.” He won an upset victory, due to his distinctive and effective political style and the strong organization he had built in the district.

Once in Parliament, Chrétien maintained his populist style, winning over English-speaking Canadians in addition to his French-speaking supporters in Québec. Because he never fully mastered English, he often mispronounced words and muddled his syntax. This became part of his appeal—reinforcing his image as a man of the people. Chrétien referred to himself as “the little guy from Shawinigan.”