Pierre Trudeau an eternal Canadian nationalist could be rightfully ascribed for building the strong foundations of federalism in Canada in the turbulent period of the 1970’s and the 1980’s. He represented the quintessential Canadian liberal politician of his times, hobnobbing with the likes of John Lennon and Yoko Ono while imposing what some say the draconian War Measures Act in 1980 to quell the wave of terrorism unleashed by the separatists in Quebec. Unafraid to speak and act as per his personal proclivities in a World which was adjusting to the rise of Communism, Trudeau prevented its backlash into Conservatism and ultra nationalism as seen in Quebec, affect the country as a whole.
His vision of nationalism included acceptance of plurality in a multi cultural state, represented by introduction of bilingualism in Canada at his behest. The force of his personality supported the strength of his ideas thereby making him a strong object of worship as well as revulsion. It was thus but natural that Trudeau would be finding many detractors particularly amongst the Francophone of Quebec.
Pierre Trudeau is seen as a villain in French Canada due to his vitriolic contrarian personality, his espousal of the liberal ideology representing the virtual counter culture of the 1970’s and his strong espousal of federalism which came in direct confrontation with Quebec nationalism.
Trudeau’s flamboyant personality, his disrespect for formal authority represented by the famous pirouette behind the Queen of England’s back provided reasons to his detractors to run down his achievements.
Trudeau born in a French Scottish background and educated in the College Jean-de-Brebeuf perhaps was well set to be a nationalist as well as a clerical fascist.[i] Fortunately the vistas of his personality opened as he traveled widely and came into intellectual contact with liberals as Jacques Maritain and John Locke.
The influence of these years of travel and study, in France, UK including the London School of Economics and the United States bore an undefinable imprint of political liberalism on his personality. It also strangely brought him closer to figures as the British pop band Beatles. His rejection of the Second World War did not go too well with nationalists and believers who continued to have faith in the values for which the War was being fought. He is also reported to have spoken at an anti draft rally thus being expelled from the Canadian Officer’s Training School for indiscipline. All this was not suited to endear him universally and provided fodder to the French Canadians.
After the War he became the leading dissident against the ideas of conservatism from both sides of the Anglo French divide in Canada which was expanding each day. This along with his dabbling in trade unionism with a Marxist touch was anathema to the political class of the times. The Marxist leaning was evident with the ban imposed on him in the United States for attending a conference in Moscow. However his extreme liberalism and cantankerous personality led him to even throw a snow ball at the statue of Stalin in the Russian capital much to the chagrin of his hosts. The oddities in his personalities were evident when he continued to criticize the Canadian Liberal party despite being one of its ideological supporters for arming missiles in Canada with nuclear warheads.
The wave that swept him to the leadership of the Liberal party in 1968 perplexed many as a left wing politician with liberal ideas, people were quite skeptical about his approach. Yet the need for sweeping changes in a nation which was shaping its identity found him heading the Liberals in 1968. The predominant support of the nation’s youth also resulted in an antagonism developing against him in the older, more conservative generation. His defiance of the rioting mobs on the Annual Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade in 1968 moved many voters to bring him to the centre stage in national politics.
The fiery personality was one reason for the large body of antagonists that developed against the liberal, youthful, defiant and unafraid Prime Minister of a nation in the midst of a crisis of identity in people of two highly dominating cultures, the Anglophonic and Franco phonic, as if the supremacy in Europe post Second World War was being fought in Canada. Pierre’s invocation of the War Measures Act in the crisis riven month of October 1970, won him detractors even within the Liberal Party, such were the strong reactions that were invoked by his personal leanings and proclivities. Trudeau’s detractors frequently called this behavior as a deliberate attempt to grab the attention of the media. Thus his personality had a major role to play in Pierre’s unpopularity amongst the French Canadians.
As a leader of the political and social counter culture in Canada, Trudeau was well poised to invite many detractors. Truadeau’s liberal antecedents can be traced back to his days in the University of Montreal as an associate professor of law, where he developed his personal proclivities to support individual rather than state rights. Persuaded by friends, Pierre Trudeau was elected to the Canadian house and soon became a Minister for Justice in the Liberal cabinet of Pearson. The liberal in him saw repealing many conservative laws such as on homosexuality and divorce, earning the ire of the conservatives some of them influential personalities as the Quebec Premier, Daniel Johnson, Jr. His left leanings were a permanent stigma that he had to carry in a Western country which was attempting to fight Communism through out the World.
The contrarian liberal in Trudeau however was seen doing an about turn, when confronted with the problem of separatist terrorism in October 1980. The firm action to quell terrorism through invocation of the War Measures Act was anathema to liberals, who never seem to have forgiven him. The creation of a multicultural society has been frequently construed as the creation of a British society with a Canadian identity. The other cultures in Canada including the French were deemed to be assimilated within this primarily anglophile culture of the country. This facet has rankled many French liberals, who deem that such a society has not emerged naturally but some how created by the likes of Trudeau. Some liberals even accuse him of creating stereo types with a view to construct an over arching structure of a nationalist government in the garb of liberalism.
However Pierre’s strongest opposition came from the Francophone of Quebec, who saw in him the principal opposition to their movement. During the October Crisis of 1970 when the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ) carried out a series of kidnappings in the province including the British Trade Consul and the Quebec Labor Minister, Trudeau did not hesitate in invoking the War Measures Act to give the government powers to ensure that the movement was brought under check by arrest and detention without a trial. This was an affront to the liberals but Pierre found it sound policy instead of giving in to the demands of radical elements in the country.
While it was Trudeau who introduced official bilingualism in Canada, giving equality to French and English in all official services of the Federal government, the Francophiles saw it to be a measure towards a multi cultural society which was seemingly anathema to them. The liberals continued to ignore the fact that Trudeau ensured through his personal charisma and espousal of free ideals that the social transformation in Canada was brought about without causing revolutionary change. It is this social dynamism represented by Trudeau that could alter the polity in the country without any civil war.
The final issue which created antagonism against Trudeau amongst the French is the immensely emotive issue of Quebec’s sovereignty. As a champion of federalism and being in the office of the Prime Minister, Trudeau was able to influence the course by championing the cause of federalism against the call for Quebec nationalism given by Parti Quebecois led by Rene Levesque. While it goes to his credit that he ensured that the issue of sovereignty was resolved through the democratic process, it was his call for a new constitution in case Quebecois stayed with Canada that is said to have gone in favor of a majority vote for sovereignty.
The Quebec nationalists could never forgive Pierre, especially so when his background was French. Moreover many believed that it was due to his forceful oratory, bilingual approach and clever articulation he had caused the mood swing even against an opponent as tough as Rene Levesque. However this was the enduring legacy that he was to provide to Canada at the cost of personal popularity amidst the French in the country. Pierre Trudeau saw in his mission a need to assimilate the French and British aspirations within the Canadian national structure by reducing inter community hostilities and provide the country an effective government.
This antipathy of the French in Canada towards Pierre was to remain and has somehow emerged as his lasting legacy in Quebec, obfuscating his major achievement in creating a federal structure which prevented fracturing of the nation, which would have proved disastrous for Quebec reducing it to a minority state. The French Canadians ascribe his strong measures by invoking the War Measures Act as central to break up of FLQ.
However they frequently ignore, that the other options were hardly viable, return of chaos and mayhem of terrorism in the country which would have been detrimental for Canada’s political and economic growth. The route of democratization provided by him to the French Canadians and a peaceful path to their aspirations is frequently forgotten. Thus these detractors of Trudeau ascribe their defeat by democratic forces to the force of his personality, which may to an extent be partially true, but the birth of great nations has seldom taken place without the efforts of leaders of his caliber.
The support that Pierre’s federalism had been consistently receiving in Quebec was frequently ignored by the French. This was evident with the capture of a majority of seats in the federal elections of 1980 by the Liberal party, though provincially the Parti Quebecois continued to remain dominant. The Quebecois also feel that it was Trudeau’s ultra nationalism which destroyed their ambitions of seeking a unique relationship with the mainstream Canadians without necessarily renouncing their rights for sovereignty of Quebec.
The War Measures Act is also seen as going against the principles of democracy. However Trudeau was a realist liberal with a reality rooted strain of liberalism which decreed that tough times required hard measures and the results achieved of suppression of FLQ in its nascence proved the righteousness of Trudeau’s cause. The Constitutional Act of 1982 has also been one of the causes of his downfall amongst the liberals in Quebec.
They ascribe their inability to win elections in Quebec after the Act was introduced at the behest of Trudeau. Ironically the bilingualism introduced by Turdeau some how rankled the Francophone as well. It was a sound basis for the creation of a multi cultural society, giving the strongly predominant French voice in Quebec extension to other parts of the country. Here again the aspirations of the Franco phones were not fully met as they found that they could not really use French in all parts of the country as freely as they did in Quebec, thereby they continued to bear a grudge against him in this sphere.
As the fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada, overlapping the critical period of over a decade from 1968 to 1984, with a brief interregnum of over nine months, Trudeau had an important role to play in the country’s dilemma of seeking a cultural identity. Trudeau was primarily responsible for seminal national charters such as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms which preserved Canadian identity and virtually single handedly redefined the national agenda. Above all he provided the moral foundations to the Canadian nation state denoted by LaSelva, roots of which will only add to its superior nationalist character as the years go by.
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