June 23, 1990
Olympic Saddledome, Calgary
Chairs: Ethel Blondin (MP for Western Arctic) and Michel Robert (Liberal party president)
John Turner announced his intention to give up the leadership in May 1989. It was over a year before 4,600-plus delegates arrive in Calgary to choose his replacement.
THE CONTENDERS
Jean Chrétien had been out of politics since resigning from Parliament in 1986.
His chief competitor was Montreal MP Paul Martin, Jr., son of the two-time candidate and regarded as Turner's heir.
The two men spent nearly $5 million in a bitter race to win the delegate count from local riding associations. It was a marked contrast from previous races, according to political scientist and former party official Brooke Jeffrey's Divided Loyalties.
Chrétien was strongest in Toronto, northern Ontario, Quebec, and the Atlantic provinces. He took more than 1,500 delegates at the meetings, tripling Martin's total.
THE CONVENTION
Collapse of the Meech Lake constitutional accord hung over the speeches and subsequent vote, which ended with a first-ballot victory for the Trudeau-era cabinet minister with nearly a quarter-century in Parliament.
Chrétien's convention speech called for national unity in the wake of Meech Lake; at an earlier Montreal debate, some in the audience yelled “vendu" at Chrétien for his position on Meech Lake.
Chrétien, who criticized the negotiating process and called for new talks and amendments, stayed virtually silent on the accord in the days leading up to the convention.
Martin and third-place finisher Sheila Copps were supporters.
Rounding out the ballot were Scarborough West MP Tom Wappel, a Meech Lake opponent known for his vocal opposition to abortion, and York South—Weston MP John Nunziata, who also opposed Meech Lake.
THE VOTE
Martin's team hoped to survive past the first ballot and attract anti-Chrétien and pro-Meech Lake delegates from other camps.
There were reports that Wappel would give support to Martin, but that Nunziata would go to Chrétien.
It was all for naught when Chrétien won on the first ballot.
His victory speech questioned Brian Mulroney's "moral authority" to govern Canadians in the wake of the Meech Lake failure. Of the prime minister, Chrétien said: "Now is the time to turn off the stove and fire the cook."
MORE:
- According to Jeffrey, some Chrétien delegates were kept in Banff until the actual vote, to ensure their attendance.
- Two Quebec Liberal MPs in Martin's camp immediately resigned from caucus as a result of Chrétien's Meech Lake position: Jean Lapierre and Gilles Rocheleau.
- Chrétien won a byelection a few months later in Beauséjour, N.B.
