Still reading Jean Chretien's My Years as Prime Minister.
"To be frank, politics is about wanting power, getting it, exercising it, and keeping it. Helping people comes with it naturally, because you'll never be elected if you treat people badly. But no one will ever convince me, with all the experience I've had, that the motivations are strictly altruistic. No - we throw ourselves into politics because we love it."
Chretien was the 18th of 19 children. Insane.
"As I had seen with Pearson and Trudeau, and as I was to discover through my own share of disillusionment, a prime minister has little room for friendship."
"Setting a realistic target and meeting it is always a better course of action than aiming too ambitiously and failing to deliver. Too many politicians think they have to make extravagant promises to attract voters. On the contrary: people are highly suspicious of those who make big promises."
Don't worry, once I finish this book and get on to the next one, there will be a post entitled "Things Mulroney taught me."