INDEPTH: JEAN CHRÉTIEN
Aline Chrétien: Rock of Shawinigan
CBC News Online | November 13, 2003
When Jean Chrétien attended his last question period in November 2003, Aline, his companion of 46 years, looked on from the visitors gallery with tears in her eyes.
It was a rare show of emotion from Canada's leading lady, whose preference has usually been to stay in the background.
"I don't like the limelight," she told CTV's Canada AM in November.
And in a country that shuns its stars, Aline Chrétien's low profile has seemed to suit the national mood.
Born in Saint-Boniface-de-Shawinigan, west of Shawinigan proper, Aline Chaîné was the first of six children for her working-class parents. She met her husband-to-be on a bus when she was in her teens and the two were married when she was 21.
Madame Chrétien is an accomplished musician and patron of the arts. She is the honorary chair of the advisory council of the Royal Conservatory of Music and is especially interested in promoting arts and culture to enhance learning for children.
In the mid-1990s she took up golf and in fairer weather can be found in the back yard of 24 Sussex chipping balls back and forth with her husband. In 1999 she shot a 105-yard hole-in-one at the Royal Ottawa golf course.
Aline and Jean Chretien during his last campaign to become prime minister. (Photo courtesy RDI)
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Madame Chrétien's most important role is that of her husband's closest advisor and confidante. In the days leading up to the 2000 election, when it looked like Paul Martin was poised to assume party leadership, it was Aline Chrétien who urged her husband on to run for a third term (he had promised her earlier that he wouldn't).
The episode shed some light on the close relationship between the two and Madame Chrétien's mostly hidden, but ever-present influence.
For his part, Jean Chrétien has been vocal about his appreciation for his wife's support. On November 6, 2003, during Chrétien's last question period, he thanked her for her support. "(She's been) a wife of a politician for 40 years," he told the House, "and if she doesn't go to heaven, no one will."
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