Saying Goodbye to Jean Chretien Welcoming Paul Martin
This week, Prime Minister Jean Chretien seems to be bidding goodbye to political life and preparing to cede the leadership of the country to heir-apparent Paul Martin. The Prime Minister has had a distinguished political life spanning over forty years, the last ten from October 1993 to present he has spent as Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

The signals are very confusing as to when the Prime Minister is actually leaving office. He had indicated many months ago that he will leave in February 2004, but recent signals seem to point to the fact that he might leave early. We wish to acknowledge the fact that under Prime Minister Jean Chretien, this country has seen tremendous growth. There has been a great deal of tolerance and welcoming of minorities in this country compared to the previous government. Many of the Liberal Party Members of Parliament especially in Toronto and Montreal have had a close association with the Ghanaian community and for that we are very grateful.

The Prime Minister has stood his ground in many difficult situations both locally and on the international front. He has stood up to some other political party leaders and members of parliament who preached bigotry and intolerance. And although minorities and members of our community did not benefit much from the largesse of government especially in appointments, we can take comfort in the fact that many of the Party’s Members of Parliament showed our community some respect.

In his final years Mr. Chretien displayed a lot of interest in the welfare and development of Africa and championed the efforts within the G8 Group of industrialized countries that led to the institution of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). We wish to take this opportunity to say goodbye to Prime Minister Jean Chretien if he leaves before the next issue of our paper hits the stands We thank him for his service to this country and wish him all the best in his retirement.

On the same note we wish to place an advance welcome mat to incoming Party Leader and potential Prime Minister Paul Martin. We want to reiterate the record that under Mr. Martin’s stewardship as Finance Minister for over seven years, a lot of Canadian Foreign Aid to African countries was drastically reduced. But we hope that he will continue from where Mr. Chretien will leave off in the new outlook towards Africa’s development and restore the aid to even higher levels.

On a more serious note on the domestic front, we wish to remind Mr. Paul Martin that our community has come of age in Canada. We can boast of well educated people in the community who can fit in various aspects of government and Canadian life. Our community members have all contributed to the building of Canada and also to the development, election and retaining of the Liberal Party in power. From the next few months that he may take over as Prime Minister we would like to see more positive action of inclusiveness of visible minorities in Mr. Martin’s government. We are tired of being consulted only at election time. We demand respect and inclusion.

We will be keeping a close eye on the performance and direction of Mr. Martin’s government in the years ahead and we will remind him constantly of the fact that Canada is very multi-ethnic and multicultural and the government and its programs should reflect this Canadian Mosaic. It should not just be a Mosaic on paper and in politicians’ rhetoric. It should be reflected in action.