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Le petit gars de Shawinigan

Broadcast Date: Nov. 19, 1985

Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien is born Jan. 11, 1934, the 18th of 19 children. (Only nine survive past infancy.) The francophone family lives in a suburb of Shawinigan, Que., where Jean spends his youth palling around with brothers Guy and Michel. Collectively, the trio are known as the p'tits gars - "the little guys." In this clip from CBC Radio's Gabereau, Chrétien describes a less-than-pastoral childhood: skipping school, faking appendicitis and watching others succeed as he struggles.

Le petit gars de Shawinigan

• Jean Chrétien's father, Wellie, was a machinist at a local newspaper mill. He also sold life insurance and was for decades the area's principal organizer for the Liberal party.
• The Chrétiens stressed education as a family priority. Jean went to boarding schools from age five to 21, but has said he hated it. He did everything possible, including feigning illness, to be sent home where he could spend time with his mother, Marie Boisvert-Chrétien.

• As a schoolboy, Chrétien was often mocked for his crooked grin — the result of a facial paralysis called Bell's palsy — which struck him after a long walk in cold weather at age 11. He is also partially dyslexic and deaf in one ear. Biographer Lawrence Martin described those ears as "the size of Dumbo the Elephant's."
• Although known as le petit gars de Shawinigan (the little guy from Shawinigan), Chrétien is actually taller than average at 188 cm (six foot two).

• Chrétien became interested in politics when he was about 12. His father put the children to work passing out Liberal party pamphlets and setting up chairs for meetings. Later, as a teen, Chrétien would have political arguments with other youths in the pool hall near his home. He was president of the Liberal Club at Laval University, where he studied law because he felt it was the best entrée to federal Parliament.

• Chrétien's street fighting isn't only political. He told the Gazette in 1978 that he learned to defend himself watching "pay-night brawls as a kid." He described how he tried to talk his way out of fighting one muscular youth. "He comes right up to me. So I hit him and lay him out. In street fighting, it's the first blow that counts. There's no chance for a second one. Life's like that."

• Aline Chaîné met Jean Chrétien, 18, on a bus when he was trying to round up dates for his friends. She was a 16-year-old secretarial school graduate. The two were neighbours but had never spoken. She agreed to go out but her mother wanted to know who was taking her. Chrétien then asked her to accompany him to a movie. "After that, I never went to a movie with any other woman," he has said.

• They have three children. France, Hubert and Michel, a Gwich'in Indian from Inuvik whom they adopted in 1971 when Chrétien was minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

Le petit gars de Shawinigan

Medium: Radio

Program: Gabereau

Broadcast Date: Nov. 19, 1985

Guest(s): Jean Chrétien

Host: Vicki Gabereau

Duration: 3:57

Last updated:
Jan. 10, 2011