As I was surfing along I found many interesting links that pointed to a story by Mark Steyn at Canada.com. Unfortunately there are too many to link, but most of them pointed to Winds of Change. Steyn suggests some reasons that Canadian PM Chretien has been unwilling thus far to assist the rest of the Anglosphere in removing the Baathists from power in Iraq and has decided to throw Canada's hat in the ring with the likes of M. Chirac and Herr Schroeder.
Apparently PM Chrétien has a daughter named France Chrétien. It just so happens that Ms. Chrétien is married to a Mr. Andre Desmarais. Mr. Desmarais is a chief co-executive of Montreal's Power Corp. Andre's daddy is "Montreal's Paul Desmarais", who is "Total's biggest shareholder". Total refers to TotalFinaELF, which is a large French petroleum conglomerate. Total had agreements with the Baathists in Iraq to develop certain petroleum fields when sanctions were lifted. "Mr. (Andre) Desmarais' brother, Paul Desmarais Jr., sits on the Total board."
So lets iron this all out shall we? The Canadian prime minister, Jean Chrétien, has a daughter who is married to the son of a man who owns a large Montreal utilities company. This company is the largest shareholder in a French company that stands to gain billions if not trillions should Saddam Hussein remain in power. This man has put both of his sons, Paul Jr. and Andre, in controlling positions in that company. Coincidentally, (of course) the Prime Minister of Canada makes a decision that could benefit his daughter and grandchildren financially.
Now the next time that I hear a leftist say, "Its all about the Oiiiiiiill." Or blather on about the Bush family and their labyrinthine connections to oil companies, I'm just going to nod and smile mysteriously.
UPDATE: On Mrs. Du Toit there are links to the Desmarais' Belgian connection to TotalFinaElf and a Belgian chemical company named Imerys.
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