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.

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.

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.

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).

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

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On this point I am in complete agreement with you.

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.

Yea, right.

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

Not now, but when Trudeau was a young man he grew up in a country that thought is was perfectly OK to imprison people, confiscate their possessions, and deny them the vote based purely on the colour of their skin.

It is not a contradiction. Trudeau was a libertarian who advanced the public good over the restrictions of his personal faith. One of his well know quotes was "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."

I'm not going to go around arguments about Trudeau again, I see him as the architect of modern Canada and I know that I would not be in Canada but for him.

I do think though that multiculturalism, the idea of semi-detached citizenship, is uniquely Canadian. Other countries accept dual citizenship but I think it's only in Canada that it's usual to take citizenship but to remain primarily loyal to, and identified with, somewhere else.

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Which other countries do you have in mind? The Netherlands is also liberal but not bilingual, Switzerland is bilingual (or better) but not liberal, which country is directly comparable to Canada in terms of social issues?

Lilliput?