Athens — Prime Minister Jean Chrétien criticized the massive deficits being posted by the "right-wing" Bush administration in the United States yesterday, while boasting of his own government's economic management.
"The Americans will have a deficit of $500-billion [U.S.] this year, and it is a right-wing government," Mr. Chrétien told reporters travelling on the plane with him to Europe. "If we were to equal that, it would be a $75-billion [Canadian] deficit because we're 10 times smaller. Imagine!"
He bragged about Canada's economic performance under his Liberal government, and noted that he has been asked by leaders of the Group of Eight to report on the state of the world's economy at their summit next week in Évian, France.
"Why? It is because we seem to have a good recipe," he said.
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The Prime Minister made the remarks in a free-wheeling talk with reporters who gathered in the aisles of the government's Airbus to hear him over the roar of the engines. He spoke of his relations with U.S. President George W. Bush, his record on immigration, international affairs and even about professional baseball.
While insisting he gets on well personally with Mr. Bush, to whom he spoke this week, the Prime Minister listed a number of differences with the Republican President.
"I'm a Canadian Liberal; he is a southern conservative," Mr. Chrétien said, adding that he is pro-choice on abortion, while Mr. Bush is not; he supports gun control, while Mr. Bush does not, and he opposes capital punishment, which Mr. Bush supports.
"But that has nothing to do [with relations] with him personally," Mr. Chrétien said. He said he has "good personal rapport" with his American counterpart, and he is one of the few world leaders who can talk baseball with Mr. Bush, a onetime part owner of the Texas Rangers.
He commiserated with Mr. Bush, he said, that Texas has three of the top hitters in the American League but are cellar-dwellers in the Western Division. "It's their pitching," he said.
Still, his comments seemed to underline the rift between the two men since Canada refused to join the U.S. war on Iraq.
Before this week, Mr. Chrétien had not spoken to Mr. Bush since Feb. 26, when the United Nations Security Council was still struggling with proposed resolutions on Iraq.
Mr. Chrétien said he had gone for long periods of time without speaking to Mr. Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton, with whom he does have a close friendship.
"When I don't need to talk to them, I don't. Right from the beginning, that was my style," he said.
Mr. Chrétien landed in the Greek capital last night to begin an 11-day European visit, beginning with meeting with the European Union in Athens and culminating in the opening of a Juno Beach memorial commemorating the Canadians' landing at Normandy on D-Day.
He said Canada is now the envy of the world, with a strong economy, political stability, and a diverse and tolerant population. He chided Canadians — and the media in particular — for failing to celebrate the country's successes.
The Prime Minister said Canada is the only country among the G8 industrialized nations to have put its public pension system on a sound financial footing.
He also said European leaders are envious of Canada's ability to absorb roughly 200,000 immigrants a year without the kind of political backlash that is roiling their countries. Italy, for example, expects to see its population decline from 60 million people to 40 million in a few decades, he said, but has trouble winning public support for higher immigration levels.
"How can you run a country with social programs when you have a population that is decreasing?" he said.
He added that his "failure" was that he was unable to achieve the target immigration level of 1 per cent of the Canadian population, or more than 300,000 new arrivals a year.
"For them, the question is how to accept a few."
As he prepared for his last G8 summit as Prime Minister, Mr. Chrétien defended his own record in international affairs, despite some gaffe-prone trips abroad.
He said last year's meeting in Kananaskis, Alta., had produced a significant and tangible agreement on aid to Africa, though some non-governmental organizations complain that financial support has been slow to flow.
He took credit for initiating a global land mines treaty at a G8 summit in Italy in 1994. He added that, in midnight phone calls to Mr. Clinton several years ago, he nearly succeeded in winning U.S. support for the global ban on land mines, but the U.S. military vetoed the proposed treaty.
Mr. Chrétien also said he had been one of the first Western leaders to seriously raise the issue of human rights in China.
As for his own future, he joked that he may follow his friend Mr. Clinton on the speaker's circuit, where the former president earns an average of $200,000 (U.S.) a speech. "Maybe I can get his leftovers," he said with a grin.
But he rejected any suggestion that he might accept a post at an international institution, such as the United Nations or World Bank.
"I'm not a candidate for any job, anywhere. I don't want to be a bureaucrat; I want to be a freelancer. I want to be able to say what I want."
