This series documents the activities of the successive chiefs of staff of the Right Honourable Jean Chrétien when he was Prime Minister of Canada, a position he held from November 1993 to December 2003 (i.e. Jean Pelletier, Percy Downe and Edward S. [Eddie] Goldenberg).
Jean Pelletier began his career as a radio and television journalist before becoming, in 1959, press secretary for then-Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis. From 1964 to 1977, he held a variety of jobs in the private sector. In 1977 he was elected mayor of Quebec City, where he served for more than 12 years. In 1990 he took part in an Ontario-Quebec working group on the proposed Quebec City-Windsor corridor high-speed rail project, before joining the staff of Liberal leader Jean Chrétien. After serving as Opposition Leader Jean Chrétien's Chief of Staff, Pelletier ran as a Liberal candidate in the October 1993 federal election in the riding of Quebec City, where he was defeated. From November 1993 to June 2001, he held the strategic position of Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
Percy Downe began his political career in 1986, when he served as Executive Assistant to the Liberal Premier of Prince Edward Island, Joseph Atallah [Joe] Ghiz (1945-1996), until 1993. Following the Liberal victory in the 1996 federal election, he went to Ottawa where he served, successively, as Executive Assistant for the departments of Veterans Affairs, Fisheries and Oceans, and Labour. In 1998 he joined the Office of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien as Director of Appointments, before serving as his Chief of Staff from June 2001 to June 2003.
Edward S. [Eddie] Goldenberg worked alongside Jean Chrétien for most of their respective political careers (i.e. since 1972, the period when Chrétien was Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs). In fact, he worked with Chrétien in a number of departments over a 20-year period, including the Treasury Board and the departments of Finance and Justice. As a Constitutional Advisor (1980-1982), he helped draft the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Goldenberg also worked with Jean Chrétien when he became Leader of the Official Opposition. In 1993 he was appointed Senior Policy Advisor and was responsible for, among other things, helping prepare and organize the 1993, 1997 and 2000 electoral campaigns. He served as Chief of Staff during Jean Chrétien's last mandate as Prime Minister, when he helped organize, among other things, a series of meetings with various U.S. high officials (including President George Bush) at a time when Canada had decided not to send troops to Iraq without the approval of the U.N. Security Council.
This series helps to track the evolving positions and decisions of the Liberal government in the period from 1993 to 2003 and, in particular, to identify underlying political and electoral strategies. The Chief of Staff, a position created in 1987, is in effect the highest ranking official since he oversees the body that represents, in some respects, the centre of Canadian political power. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is in charge of, among other things: media relations; the Prime Minister's correspondence and speaking engagements; order-in-council appointment nominations; communication/relations with the party leadership, both outside the government and within caucus; and the selection of priority issues to bring to the Prime Minister's attention. In this respect, the Chief of Staff plays (often behind the scenes) a support and advisory role to the Prime Minister, especially on sensitive issues.
The series consists mainly of the following: correspondence and working papers of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's chiefs of staff; subject and administrative files of exempt staff in the PMO and various departments; briefing notes and files from the Privy Council Office (PCO); documents and records concerning Jean Pelletier's electoral campaign; and various speeches.
The series contains 5,134 files and consists of six sub-series: Correspondence; Subject Files; Administrative Files; Liaison with the Privy Council Office; Speeches; and Jean Pelletier's Electoral Campaign.
