Jean Chrétien was Prime Minister of Canada for a decade between 1993 and 2003. He was born and raised in Shawinigan, Quebec, where a museum is dedicated to his role in integrating Canada with the wider world. Although fire department maps name the gallery space as a “temporary exhibition” space inside La Cité d’Energie, I think the museum is here to stay.
Gifts from abroad 
Gifts from abroad
The museum is mostly a collection of gifts from foreign dignitaries to Canada while Chrétien was Prime minister accompanied by exhibition boards with pictures and texts of Canada’s involvement in world affairs during his government. Canada joined the UN in deploying to Bosnia and participated in the US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, but refused to take part in Iraq.
Closer to home, the Canadian navy was involved in seizing a Spanish boat fishing in the North Atlantic. The Spanish responded in kind by providing armed naval escorts to their fishermen. Fortunately, Canada is known to be more peaceful than confrontational so the situation ended peacefully with a bilateral agreement on fishing rights. The Ottawa Treaty on Anti-Personnel Mines was also signed by more than half the world’s countries during Chrétien’s tenure.
