macadian

Oh yea...dear Margaret.....contrary to my favourite Stones track 'you can't always get what you want etc'....she did....

jimf

And didn't seem to have any particular aversion to national socialism either.

According to the Wiki bio

The National Archives of Canada, in its biographical sketches of Canadian prime ministers, records how on one occasion during the war Trudeau and his friends drove their motorcycles wearing Prussian military uniforms, complete with pointed steel helmets.

Is this really true?

Lord Vader

The CIA didn't trust him, our allies hated him. Trudeau was a closet commie IMO.

macadian

I would tend to agree....

Oink

Give me a break.

macadian

which neck sir? The brass one....or the one permanently extended....

jimf

A few interesting paras from Wiki again:

Trudeau was the first world leader to agree to meet John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono on their 'tour for world peace'. Lennon said, after talking with Trudeau for 50 minutes, that Trudeau was "a beautiful person" and that "if all politicians were like Pierre Trudeau, there would be world peace."

On March 4, 1971, the Prime Minister married Margaret Sinclair, a woman who, at 22, was 30 years his junior. They later divorced.

The Liberal victory in 1980 highlighted a sharp geographical divide in the country: the party had won no seats west of Manitoba. Trudeau had to resort to having Senators appointed to Cabinet to ensure representation from all regions. The introduction of the National Energy Program (NEP) created a firestorm of protest in the Western provinces and increased what many termed "Western alienation."

bsmith

Up until moving to Canada that pretty much represented the sum total of my knowledge of Canadian political history.

Almost Canadian

I am reading Canadian political history at the moment. How was Canada "transformed" by Trudeau? I am genuinely interested because, it would seem from my readings, that he entrenched the feelings of "them and us" between francophones and anglophones. Is this the "transformation" to which refer?

JonboyE

Trudeau was a devout Catholic all his life. Hardly a commie.

Anyway, as we are all quoting from the wiki this is what he did for Canada:

One of Trudeau's most enduring legacies is the 1982 patriation of the Canadian constitution, including a domestic amending formula and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is seen as advancing civil rights and liberties and, notwithstanding clause aside, has become a cornerstone of Canadian values for most Canadians. It also represented the final step in Trudeau's liberal vision of a fully independent and nationalist Canada based on fundamental human rights and the protection of individual freedoms as well as those of linguistic and cultural minorities.

Court challenges based on the Charter of Rights have been used to advance the cause of women's equality, re-establish French school boards in provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan, and to mandate the adoption of same-sex marriage all across Canada. Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, has clarified issues of aboriginal and equality rights, including establishing the previously denied aboriginal rights of Métis. Section 15, dealing with equality rights, has been used to remedy societal discrimination against minority groups. The coupling of the direct and indirect influences of the Charter has meant that it has grown to influence every aspect of Canadian life, and the override (notwithstanding clause) of the Charter has been infrequently used.

Novocastrian

And, since I can read wikis as well as the next man, let's return to the NEP, which was a policy we could do with re-introducing today.

"The NEP was introduced in the wake of the energy crises of the 1970s. Because of high oil prices, several economic problems that were beginning to manifest themselves through the 1970s were accelerated and magnified. Inflation was out of control and interest rates were through the roof. Unemployment was epidemic in the eastern provinces where the Trudeau government had much of its political support.[1] The NEP was designed to promote oil self-sufficiency for Canada, maintain the oil supply, particularly for the industrial base in eastern Canada, promote Canadian ownership of the energy industry, promote lower prices, promote exploration for oil in Canada, promote alternative energy sources, and increase government revenues from oil sales through a variety of taxes and agreements.[2] "

Western alienation? Read Albertan greed and irresponsibility coupled with domination of said province's politics by rapacious oil companies.

Almost Canadian

I fail to appreciate how the "amending formula" can be seen as transforming Canada. The amending formula is so cumbersome that it is virtually guaranteed that the Constitution will never be amended.

The Constitution was a complete fudge based on the fact that, to achieve the agreement of the Provinces, Trudeau had no alternative but to water down what it should have stood for to something that is the cause of all the "them and us" strife that one sees from all of the Provinces.

The "Fathers of Confederation" supposedly wished to avoid the State versus Federal battles highlighted by the US Constitution, with the intention that, essentially, the Feds would have way more power than the Provinces. Unfortunately, it turned out the other way and the things that were supposed to be avoided, became entrenched.

Canada had a Bill of Rights long before the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, one simply replaced the other.

The Notwithstanding Clause is virtually universally used in Quebec.

I think you need to do some more homework.

Almost Canadian

How so, the NEP deliberately held oil prices in Canada, well below the open market price and usurped the Provincial jurisdiction over such commodities, largely to ensure that the Trudeau's supporters in the East continued to obtain below market prices at the expense of those in the West that sourced the product.

No one can seriously argue that it is fair that the "have not" Provinces are able to spend to silly levels for services that those that are paying for them (the "have" Provinces) do not provide due to fiscal responsibility.

If we all spent at the levels that the fiscally irresponsible Provinces do, Canada would be in deep, deep do-da!

To put it another way, why does Quebec, not "export" it's cheap electricity to the remainder of Canada at prices way below market rates, instead of sending it south of the border? What is good for one, must surely be good for the other - no

Novocastrian

I think it only fair for you to say which author(s) interpretation of Canadian political history is informing your views at the moment.

Novocastrian

But doesn't this rather jar with your previous contention that the fathers of confederation had in mind less provincial power vis a vis the federal government?