"Then The Second One Hit"

Somehow, this doesn't seem the same politician with whom I was familiar when he was Prime Minister of Canada. Yet here is Jean Chretien, the Right Honourable, declaring in an interview that "For me, panicking is always a big mistake, you have to remain calm." Emphasizing for good measure that he was determined not to engage in public "grandstanding". Oh. Oh?

"You don't take advantage of death in politics. For me, it was terrible for the Americans and I didn't want to be on the air and be visible at that time. I think it was the day for the Americans to mourn and we were on their side. Some people said that I did not talk as much as I should have. But I disagree. I think the best way for a prime minister is to be very calm and not to exaggerate and to take things in good stride. Look calm. If you are calm, people remain calm. If you look excited, the people don't know what's going on."

Admirable, no other word for it. But it does seem out of character, or was the man's character misjudged? This isn't the guy who grinned and talked about putting pepper on his steak when he was queried about the wisdom of pepper-spraying protesters at the Asia Pacific Economic Conference in Vancouver. Nor is it the same street-fighter who throttled an anti-poverty activist, giving him a taste of the "Shawinigan handshake".

This doesn't much sound like the "small town cheap" response of the hostile Adscam enquiry, and the Shawinigate scandal, Grand Mere golf course and hotel sale, let alone the feather-nesting he engaged in for his future as an industry lobbyist that his contacts with Chinese officials through his official forays into the country with his Team Canada missions made possible on the public dime.

From the quotes relating to his leadership during the frightening first days post 9/11 one has the impression of a misjudged, unappreciated leader of great acumen and reliability, one who put the country first and comported himself accordingly. Well, can't blame him, everyone likes to think kindly of their efforts, and to minimize their failures. And the fact is he was Prime Minister and he had vital decisions to make.

On that occasion he seems to have acquitted himself well. It was a terribly sobering time. The dreadful gravity of the situation took a while to kick in, and it traumatized everyone. No one knew quite what was happening, no one could readily absorb the reality of what had occurred. Until one signal event took place: the second airliner striking the second tower banished all thoughts of an accident and underlined precisely what everyone was watching in real-time horror.

Members of the Chretien cabinet at a time when Parliament was not yet in session, were scattered everywhere but in Ottawa. Suddenly innocent enough events that had little to do with the earth-shattering terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and over Pennsylvania air space, took on new meaning in their potential to be understood as additional elements in a many-pronged terrorist-co-ordinated attack scheme.

Canada was confronted, like the United States, reeling from the unbelievably brazen and violent character of the attacks, with a sudden need to institute greater security, closing down airspace, monitoring airports and devising new emergency laws to cope with the disaster. And cope they did, as best they could.

And people who were transfixed and frozen in horror got over it, and soon began to think of it as past and best laid aside. Impossible, actually, because the world itself had changed and though we hadn't noticed it, now we do. Many of us do, many more of us do not.

Terrorism on the scale which it grew to occupy internationally metamorphosed from implausible to the reality of our times.