Alan Hustak , Montreal Gazette - January 12 2009

Jean Pelletier, former prime minister Jean Chretien’s trusted friend and chief of staff, died Saturday.

He was 73.

Pelletier had been battling cancer and was admitted to a hospital in Quebec City on Dec. 31.

Pelletier was a former Quebec City mayor who, as Chretien’s chief of staff, had an otherwise sterling reputation tarnished by the sponsorship scandal.

Known as Chretien’s "silent executioner," Pelletier was rewarded for his loyalty to the prime minister by being appointed chairman of Via Rail shortly before Chretien left office in 2003.

There, Pelletier ran afoul of his political enemies who wrongly fired him as Via Rail chairman not once, but twice.

Pelletier successfully sued to get his job back and was eventually awarded significant damages for wrongful dismissal.

But when he died of cancer Saturday, he was still fighting to regain a reputation that was sullied by the sponsorship scandal.

Although Pelletier was never found guilty of any wrong doing, as Chretien’s troubleshooter, he was linked by association to the scandal that involved throwing money at Quebec after the 1995 referendum in an attempt to buy federalist loyalty.

He took some measure of comfort in June, when a federal court justice exonerated him of any wrongdoing and ruled that Judge John Gomery who headed the inquiry into the scandal "exhibited bias" against Pelletier and Chretien during hearings in 2002, and ordered all sections of Gomery’s report dealing with the two men to be "considered void."

But the ruling did not put an end to widespread suspicion, that as Chretien’s henchman, Pelletier must have been, in part, accountable for what Gomery said was "the defective manner" in which the sponsorship initiatives were administered, even though he did not personally profit from any of the initiatives.

"He ran a very good office, he managed the Prime Minister’s office perfectly, he was loyal and he had a lot of personal ability," Chretien said.

"He had a great record of public service - an exemplary record - a great personality, and he was a great friend. He did not deserve what happened to him (at Via Rail). It was unjust and unfair, he was treated unfairly and the courts said so."

Pelletier was born in Chicoutimi, Que., Feb 21, 1935. He first met Jean Chretien when the two of them roomed together at the Seminaire de Trois Rivieres where their lifelong friendship was born.

The two were also classmates at Universite Laval. Chretien biographer Lawrence Martin described Pelletier as "having the air of a young Jean Beliveau, mature beyond his years... he moved comfortably among the students, held forth on the major national and international issues of the day, and displayed a panache that the unpolished Chretien could never hope to attain."

Pelletier began his career in 1957 as a television reporter, then served briefly as press secretary to Paul Sauve, who died in 1960, 112 days after becoming Premier of Quebec.

Pelletier then dabbled as a publisher of L’Action Catholique, sold real-estate, administered the Trident Theatre company, and in 1977 was elected Mayor of Quebec City.

As mayor, he called on Chretien, then Minister of State for Social Development in Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s government, to help him secure an National Hockey League franchise, The Nordiques, for the capital.

Pelletier stepped down as mayor after three terms in 1989 to become a liberal party organizer. He ran for Parliament as a Liberal in 1993 but was defeated by the Bloc Quebecois.

Instead of a cabinet position, Pelletier went directly into the Prime Minister’s office as Chretien’s right hand. (original link)

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