Stephen Harper and Jean Chretien talk Canadian pride, Alberta separatism and the threat of the 51st State — ‘He’s afraid of the Shawinigan handshake’

Each had led governments for a decade, and while they jousted, they showed a bemused respect for the other. They both suggested Canada focused too much time in recent years on apologizing for what was wrong, instead of celebrating what was positive.

“Jean,” Harper said, was right to always say Canada is the “best country in the world.”

“So, let’s be proud,” he said. “Our pride doesn’t have to be just — ‘we don’t like Trump.’ We should be proud of who we are as people today.” 

Both acknowledged current tensions, but Chretien noted U.S. President Donald Trump has “created a mood that Canadian(s) have never been so proud to be Canadian,” claiming the same is true in Quebec. 

“Today the desire to have a referendum is very low in Quebec,” Chretien said, adding: “I don’t know what the hell is going on in Alberta.”

“I didn’t sign the petition,” Harper said, referencing an Alberta separatist group’s effort to garner signatures to trigger a referendum on Alberta’s separation. (Have any Tories signed, Chretien asked. “I’m told not,” Harper said.)

Harper went on to say that he thinks “the reality is if the federal government manages its country right, puts the stress on unity and not on ideological tangents, there’s no reason why we can’t pull the country together at this moment.”

Chretien and Harper have occasionally shared a stage before, usually behind closed doors on the speaking circuit. But their remarks on Monday carried a public resonance at a time when separatist forces are organizing in Alberta and Quebec, and as Trump is once again musing about Canada as the 51st state.

At a fancy dinner in D.C. on Saturday, according to the Washington Post, Trump told the Alfalfa Club he is “not going to invade Greenland. We’re going to buy it.”

“‘It’s never been my intention to make Greenland the 51st state,’” the Post quoted Trump saying. “I want to make Canada the 51st state. Greenland will be the 52nd state. Venezuela can be 53rd.’”

“We have to be proud, you know,” said Chretien. “We’re political opponents, but we’re not enemies. Not today at least,” he added as he leaned in for the joke: “Because he’s afraid of the Shawinigan handshake.”

Chretien gestured a chokehold towards Harper’s neck, mocking his own famous 1996 Flag Day throttling of a protester.

The two riffed off how French and Indigenous peoples fought to defend against Americans during the Revolutionary War, and later banded with British loyalists to resist the pull of America during the War of 1812. 

“It is why everybody will give everything they have,” Chretien said, “to have the privilege to come and share our so-called miseries.”

Chretien teased Harper that he voted in support of the Liberal government’s Clarity Act, boasting that it means a referendum on separation cannot succeed on an unclear question or without a decisive, clear majority. Harper reminded Chretien, “I introduced the first draft of it” as a Reform MP in Parliament.

Chretien, 91, offered sweeping statements about the U.S., saying the world is seeing “the beginning of the end of the American empire.” Canada, he insisted, is “in a very good position,” having “land” the “best-educated people in the world,” and a solidarity across all fault lines that he believes holds true today.

“We burned the White House, but we will not repeat it,” said Chretien.

“Part of it has been torn down by the current government,” Harper chimed in.

Still, Harper, 66, was more measured compared to February last year, when he said he’d be prepared to accept “any level of damage” to preserve the independence of the country. On Monday, Harper said “the country is worth preserving,” but “there are costs that are going to have to be paid under the current circumstances to do that.”

There are also enormous opportunities, he added. “It’s not all cost. There’s a lot we can do that we haven’t done to make ourselves more competitive, more wealthy, more connected to the world … So let’s do some nation building.”

That is an echo of current Prime Minister Mark Carney’s term to brand his trade and security diversification efforts.

But Harper, who the Star reported Saturday is in regular contact with Carney, took a dig at Carney’s speech two weeks ago in Quebec City that fell flat with its reference to the defeat of the French at the Plains of Abraham in the context of appealing to Canadian unity.

“We created this country, created it through joint action, through joint defence, through joint economic building,” said Harper. “But I would say that … The American Revolution and the War of 1812 were probably better examples of Canadian unity than the Plains of Abraham.”

The audience, made up of former Harper staffers and political colleagues as well as some Liberals, ate it up.

Harper recalled his government focused on addressing serious threats to Canada’s Arctic sovereignty after decades of neglect, adding he never anticipated such a threat could come “from our southern neighbour.”

Just before their conversation, Harper was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Canadian Geographic Society for his “distinguished career in public service,” a recognition Chretien had previously received.

This week Harper is marking the 20th anniversary of the modern Conservative party taking office with Tuesday’s official unveiling of his portrait in Parliament, a gala and keynote speech Wednesday and the deposit of his prime ministerial records at the Library and Archives Canada on Thursday.