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The Hill
Times
| Monday Oct 9, 2000 |
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TRUDEAUMANIA AND PRINCIPLES
Now that Pierre Trudeau rests in
peace in the outskirts of Montreal, I want to express my opinion on a person
that has been described as the most influential Canadian of the last century. I
am doing it as an "ordinary Canadian", one of those people that,
according to the national media, were mourning the loss of a charismatic
international leader like Mahatma Ghandi, Nelson Mandela or John
Kennedy.
There is no doubt that Trudeau
was a political leader whose charisma was putting him well above the crowd.
However, behind the charisma, there were ideas and programs.
Pierre Trudeau's legacy is a very
complex package that cannot be bought in a wholesale store. Trudeau's
merchandise has to be analyzed in a very quite environment that a state funeral
cannot provide.
He had ideas, strong ideas, about
the constitutional future of this Country; he had ideas about the economy of
this Country, he had ideas on social values, he had ideas on foreign policy, he
had ideas on our culture(s) and he had ideas on how to prepare the coffee in the
morning. He had strong ideas on everything because he was an intelligent,
educated and cultured man.
The question is: why’s trudeaumania
back? Was it because of his charismatic behavior or the power of his ideas? And,
if it’s the latter, which one?
Pierre Elliott Trudeau had a
vision, he was a real federalist, he loved Canada and he had a plan to make it
work.
He challenged the dogmas this
Country is dragging from the colonial past and brought them out in the open. He
challenged the part-time nationalism of the West with their exasperated
regionalism, and the historical revenges of the Québec’s separatists. He also
acknowledged the presence of million of Canadians who had neither regional
idiosyncrasies, nor historical revenges to appease: the so-called ethnics.
He gave the National Energy
Program to the West, the Constitution to Québec, Multiculturalism to the
“others” and by-lingualism for all: this was Trudeau’s vision for this
Country.
Was it accepted?
Well, he never won a stunning
majority in the polls, he won a minority government, he was defeated by Joe
Clark and he left politics before Canadians could vote on his initiative to
repatriate the Constitution. In fact, in 1984 Liberals were decimated in the
polls and the defeats cannot be completely unloaded on John Turner’s
shoulders. If anything, his defeat was accelerated because, according to the
then triumphant Brian Mulroney, he did not exercise the “option”.
Even to date, the West has still
hard feelings against him because of by-lingualism and NEP; not to mention the
resentment from Québec people because of the Constitution. Furthermore,
Multiculturalism is despised by separatists and, at the best, tolerated in the
West and ignored in the East.
It seems to me that the only
people that accepted Trudeau’s vision for the future of this Country are the
so-called ethnics who have accepted the concept of by-lingual and multicultural
Canada, accepted the Constitution and the National Energy Program. It is not a
coincidence that Jacques Parizeau is furious against the “ethnics” and many
of the people that commemorated Trudeau were “ethnics”. And, it might have
escaped to the national media, but a look at the crowd on Parliament Hill and in
front of Montreal Notre-Dame Basilica would have confirmed just that. It is not
a coincidence that the electoral stronghold of the Liberals is Multicultural
Ontario and most of the urban area of this Country.
It was the “ethnics” who in
1984 saved the Liberal Party from becoming a “party of two” and is still
Ontario that keeps Jean Chrétien in government in Ottawa.
So, why is Trudeaumania back? Is
it his economic vision, the one that asks for increased spending, increased
taxes and increased deficit? Is it his vision of a federalist Canada that
refutes the principle of a divisible Country? Is it his Ostpolitik?
According to the polls, people
are tired of deficits, taxes and debt, and the Clarity Bill has accepted
the principle of Québec secession. The Ostpolitik is over and if a Chrétien’s
relative will get married tomorrow, it will not be Fidel Castro to attend to the
ceremony. Bill Clinton might. Not to mention the now adrift concept of
Multiculturalism, completely ignored by our federal institutions like CRTC.
Trudeaumania is back not only
because Pierre Elliott was intelligent, charismatic and educated. Trudeaumania
is back because he had a vision for this Country. Trudeaumania is back because
Trudeau was going to the polls when he had something to tell to the people, not
when the pollester had something to tell him. Trudeaumania in back because
people know that success is not measured by the size of surplus, but by the
vision on how to spend it. Trudeaumania is back because Trudeau, rightly or
wrongly, was fighting to give Canada a place in the history of the World, not
because he was looking for a place in the history of this Country. Because he
knew that if you do not have a Country, looking for a place in its history might
become a futile exercise.
Trudeaumania is back because Trudeau had principles,
and he taught us that we never have to accept any compromise on that. Not even
if it is necessary to win an election.
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