OTTAWA — Andre Ouellet claimed to have government support -- and sometimes the personal backing of Jean Chretien -- for some of the projects he championed as board chairman at Canada Post, the federal sponsorship inquiry was told Monday.

Georges Clermont, former president of Canada Post, pointed to one initiative in particular that saw the Crown corporation put up $50,000 for a coffee table book of artistic photographs in 1998.

"Mr. Ouellet told me the PM wanted it," Clermont told the inquiry headed by Justice John Gomery.

He acknowledged that he never spoke directly to Chretien or checked with the Prime Minister's Office, so he had no first-hand knowledge of the then-prime minister's wishes.

But Clermont said it wasn't the only time Ouellet suggested to him that Chretien was backing a project.

"He often talked about speaking to the PM."

On other occasions, Clermont said, Ouellet would tell him he was speaking for "the shareholder" -- a euphemism for the federal government in its role as owner of the Crown corporation.

Documents tabled at the inquiry indicate that Canada Post eventually bought 1,000 copies of the coffee table book entitled Le Chant de l'Eau.

Ouellet had a personal hand in the project in more ways than one. He wrote the foreword to the book, the copies of which were to be given away by Canada Post as corporate gifts.

The $50,000 expenditure is listed in the minutes of an internal post office meeting in June 1998 as having been authorized by the chairman of the board.

Ouellet was named to that post by Chretien in 1996 when he left the federal cabinet, where he had been foreign affairs minister.

Over the next three years -- until Clermont finally resigned as president in early 1999 -- he and Ouellet were often at odds.

"Mr. Ouellet tried more and more to involve himself in the day-to-day management of the corporation, which was my responsibility," said Clermont.

"We had many discussions about this."

At one point, he said, Ouellet tried to persuade the Canada Post board of directors to remove his authority as president to approve certain contracts.

The effort was unsuccessful.

The Gomery inquiry is investigating the sponsorship program that saw Ottawa spend $250 million to back various sports and cultural events, books, magazines, TV series and other projects.

The aim was primarily to raise the federal profile in Quebec and fight separatism. But an estimated $100 million went to Liberal-friendly ad agencies and other middlemen who often failed to deliver quality work.