Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

More chance of a "Margaret Thatcher" primary school in Blyth I think.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion...963/story.html

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

I believe the first comment (at least when I looked) at the bottom of the article may succinctly sum up local feeling on the subject:

"Rot in hell Pierre."

:rofl:

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

I liked this quote


So his efforts to establish two official languages and prevent Quebec from leaving are reasons to have his name on a school? Greeeeaaaat. Thanks for those Pierre.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

Iggorunt rednecks.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

Pierre managed to strengthen the separation movement in Quebec while at the same time alienating the west. Pierre is Ontario's sweetheart and is the most polarizing political figure in Canadian history.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

Eastern barstward.

Go freeze in the dark.

I remember the NEP.:sneaky:

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

Canada needs more polarizing characters. Stick Trudeau's name up on the school.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

Didn't think much of his shirt there either.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

yea, on top of the annual bonfire.....:sneaky:

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

One the the great liberals of the 20th century.

I don't think I would want to live in a Canada that had not been transformed by Trudeau and Pearson.

Of course, the Albertans didn't like him. Nor did Maggie, which is always a recommendation.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

Clearly you do. Did you coin the slogan?

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

As you're well aware the slogan can be attributed to our at the time mayor "King Ralph" asshole extraordinaire.:p

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

He was buddies with Castro

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

and he was buddies with all sorts of pinko's....:p

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

Didn't Mick Jagger knob his wife?

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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?

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

I would tend to agree....

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

Give me a break. :rofl:

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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."

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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?

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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.:p

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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:p

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

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?

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

He let us in. Mass immigration, multiculturalism, bilingualism, sexual tolerance eventually leading to acceptance of same-sex marriage, the features that define Canada today, stem from the Trudeau era.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

I said that was the intention, the reality is that the Privy Council ruled against the Feds and supported the Provinces early on.

I find the bickering between the Provinces pathetic. I would much prefer a powerful Federal authority, with appropriate powers delegated to Provincial Jurisdiction. If that was the case, it would be more likely that social services across the country would be more harmonised than they currently are.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

I think I am on my sixth book at the moment. To a large extent, the ones I have read have been fairly consistent in their "version" of the events. While riding the train to and from work, I am reading Roger Riendeau's "Brief History of Canada" - not that academic, but a fairly easy read. At home I have a more academic tome, the title and the author of which escapes me. I will let you know what it is if you are really that interested.

I have no idea what the earlier books were. I hate academia and read, not to impress others, but to become informed.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

Really, I thought immigration to Canada existed long before the Trudeau era, particularly for those of "us" that hail from Britain.

I thought the Mulroney era was responsible for formulating multiculturalism (Multiculturism Act 1988).

From an American viewpoint, I guess you could argue that same-sex marrige etc, "defines" Canada. I doubt the rest of the world would agree.

I may be wrong, and I am happy to be corrected, but I thought that the Trudeau era was defined by stagflation, an immigration policy to ensure that only "desirables" were allowed in, high interest rates, ineffective government response to economic problems, the NEP, discontent with the Provinces and huge issues with Quebec (with the resulting f*&k up that is the unamendable Constitution).

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

I read that too and then spent the rest of the afternoon fishing.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

On this point I am in complete agreement with you.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

You would say that living in Ontario, but we need our interests protected in the west, otherwise we'll get right royally shafted by you eastern egotists.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

Yea, right.

Re: Calgary school won't be named Trudeau
 

Trudeau's accent to power led to the seperatist PQ forming in Quebec and gaining power in 1970, which resulted in two referundums, the second of which nearly resulted in the country breaking up, not to mention the alienation of the West as previosuly mentioned. Trudeau sent tanks into downtown Montreal. He most certainly did entrench an "us vs them". Quebec did not and has not signed the Canadian constitution. Two other attempts (Meech Lake and the Charlotown Accords) resulted in failure becasue not all of the provinces agreed to an ammendment. If Harper gets a majority, we will see another attempt to fix the constitution.


Um, mass immigration has been the norm in North America. Trudeau had nothing to do with any of the things you mention. Trudeau was about an all powerful federal government in a huge country with distinct regions. Trudeau=fail