The contempt of Parliament ruling against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives is so “serious” that Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff could win despite poor poll numbers, says former prime minister Jean Chrétien.

Chrétien, whose Liberals governed from 1993 until 2003, noted Tuesday that he saw many parliamentary crises during 40 years in the Commons, but Monday’s censure is not mere procedural wrangling.

“Of course it’s serious. It’s serious,” he told reporters at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.

“The members will decide (if the Conservative government survives). Parliament will decide. I had to face (those) type of controversies a few times in my life. But ... I survived and I’m still in good shape.”

While the feisty 77-year-old emphasized he’s sitting on the political sidelines as is “tradition” for former Canadian prime ministers, he had some advice for Ignatieff.

“Polls move up and down. It’s the day of the election (that matters). I had to say that a few times, too,” said Chrétien, recalling Liberal skittishness when Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney stepped down in 1993.

“Remember, we were doing very well and Mulroney resigned and Kim Campbell comes and everybody said she will form a government,” he said.

“I had to tell my caucus: ‘You know, you’re a bunch of nervous Nellies.’ You remember? I said: ‘She’s a shooting star, she has a summer job’ and anyway, I had to fight back and we won.”

Asked if Ignatieff, who trails Harper by double digits in most public opinion polls, can triumph if there is a federal election soon, Chrétien smiled slyly.

“In an election everybody can win in theory,” he said, conceding he misses the action of political life.

“You know what my problem is? I’d love to do the campaign, but I don’t want to be prime minister anymore. So that’s why I’m not in politics,” said Chrétien.

“Gladstone came back — he was 83 — to form his fourth government. I’m only 77,” he joked, referring to 19th-century British prime minister William Gladstone.

“But I’m not interested.”

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