Jean Chrétien certainly was born with the odds stacked against him: the second youngest child in a family of 19 children (roughly half grew to adulthood), Jean was a small, skinny boy who was deaf in one ear, deformed at the mouth, and dyslexic. His father was a mill-wheeler and his mother took care of the kids. However, "Le petit gars de Shawinigan- (Little guy from Shawinigan, as he became known) has been elected as a Member of Parliament 11 times in total. Being appointed to cabinet for the first time in 1967, Jean has served time in almost every major cabinet position possible, eventually climbing in rank and becoming the leader of the national Liberal Party and the Prime Minister of Canada.
Jean Chrétien was born and raised in Shawinigan, Quebec. All children in the Chrétien family were encouraged to become politically active, and Jean began campaigning for local Liberal candidates in his teens. He attended schools in Shawinigan, Joliette and Trois-Rivieres, and studied Law at Laval University. After being called to the bar in 1953 at the age of 19, Chrétien joined a law firm, and soon became Director of the Bar of Trois-Rivieres.
Jean Chrétien was first elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1963 as a backbencher without a portfolio, representing the constituency of St. Maurice-Lafleche. Re-elected in 1965, Chrétien became the Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, and a few months later the minister of Finance. Other accomplishments include being the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Minister of National Revenue, and Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources. When the Liberals failed to win a majority government and the Progressive Conservatives took over in 1986, Jean Chrétien stepped down from Federal politics and concentrated on his law practice up until 1990, when he was elected leader of the national Liberal Party.
