by Anthony Wilson-SmithTwenty-four years ago, five political leaders waited for their futures to play out.  In 1997, Jean Chrétien, 63, had been prime minister four years.  A loss of his majority in the federal election would renew descriptions of him as 'yesterday's man' and challenge his leadership.  Yet he remained playful – even once taking over the service window at a McDonald's in British Columbia to serve startled patrons.Jean Charest, 37, sought to revive a Progressive Conservative party that held only two seats – and prove himself a leader of consequence.  In the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum, Chretien and Charest shared stages and kind words.  But the two were back to old differences, with Quebec as a priority for each.The other leaders – Reform's Preston Manning , the NDP's Alexa McDonough and the Bloc Québecois' Gilles Duceppe – sometimes seemed supporting actors in a very human drama.  That night, Chrétien's Liberals won 155 of 301 seats – less than in the previous election, but a majority.  Manning's Reform won 60 seats, proving its 1993 rise from obscurity was no fluke. Charest took the PCs to 20 seats to regain official party status.Alexa McDonough's NDP went from nine to 21 seats.  Duceppe, replacing Lucien Bouchard at the helm of the BQ, held 44 of Quebec's 75 seats.  Each endured in politics long after that night.  Chrétien remained till his 2003 retirement.  McDonough also stepped down as leader in 2003.  Manning pushed Reform into a merger of conservative parties in 2000 although he lost a bid to lead the new party.  Duceppe remained till the 2011 election.  Charest left in 1998 to lead the post-referendum Quebec provincial Liberals, became premier in 2003, and served until 2012.The result proved the old line that politics is the art of the possible: in one election, five leaders – each in their own way - were able to declare victories.[caption id="attachment_563333" align="alignleft" width="559"] The five federal party leaders square off in a televised debate during the 1997 campaign[/caption]Anthony Wilson-Smith, now CEO of Historica Canada, covered the 1997 election for Maclean's Magazine.