Jean Chrétien's greatest asset as Canada's twentieth prime minister is his long years of experience in Parliament and Cabinet. In government or in opposition, he has served with six prime ministers, held twelve ministerial positions and sat in Parliament for a total of twenty-seven years. When it comes to the game of politics, no one knows better the players and the strategies. The eighteenth child of a paper mill machinist, Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien was born in Shawinigan, Quebec in 1934, sharing with Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, the same birthday of January 11. Although his academic achievements were modest, Chrétien's parents were determined to give him good education and he was sent to the classical college in Trois-Riviéres. After graduating, he attended Laval University, where he studied law. He was called to the Bar in 1958 and set up his law practice in the working-class district of Shawinigan North. Chrétien had demonstrated an interest in politics from a young age. His father was a Liberal organizer and by the age of fifteen, Chrétien was helping to distribute pamphlets and attending political rallies. At Laval he joined the campus Liberal Club. Quebec Liberals were an endangered species in the 1950s; the Union Nationale had dominated Quebec politics for more than a decade, and in 1957, the Conservatives won federally. Nevertheless, Chrétien persevered, campaigning for Liberal candidates in both provincial and federal elections. By 1960, he was principal organizer for Jean Lesage, leader of the provincial Liberal party, in the election that made him Quebec Premier that year. In 1963, Chrétien was asked to run as the Liberal candidate for St-Maurice-Lafléche in the federal election. The incumbent was a Créditiste who had won the previous election with a margin of 10 000 votes, nine months earlier. In a hard-fought campa...