The Truth About Trudeau

Bob Plamondon

Description

Finally, after over 30 years of hagiographies, comes a book that sets the record straight and tells us the truth about Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

In this unprecedented and meticulously researched sweep of the record, Globe and Mail bestselling author Bob Plamondon challenges the conventional wisdom that Trudeau was a great prime minister. With new revelations, fresh insights, and in-depth analysis, Plamondon reveals that the man did not measure up to the myth.

While no one disputes Trudeau's intelligence, toughness, charisma, and the flashes of glamour he brought Canada, in the end the pirouettes were not worth the price.

Sujets

• Political
• Lettres et linguistique
• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 09 février 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456616717
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Truth
About Trudeau
 
 
Bob Plamondon
 
Great River Media

 
 
The Truth About Trudeau
 
Bob Plamondon
 
Great River Media
 
Copyright © 2013 by Bob Plamondon
 
All rights reserved.
No part of this work covered by the copyrights hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems — without the prior written permission of the publisher, or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from Access Copyright, the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency, One Yonge Street, Suite 800, Toronto, Ontario, M5E 1E5.
 
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Plamondon, Robert E. The Truth about Trudeau / Bob Plamondon.
 
Includes biographical references and index.
ISBN- 13: 978-1-4566-1671-7
 
1. Trudeau, Pierre Elliott, 1919-2000. 2. Canada - Politics and government - 1968-1979. 3. Canada - Politics and government - From 1980 to 1984. 4. Prime ministers - Canada - Biography. I. Title.
FC626.T7P53 2013 971 064 ‘4092 C2013-902814-5
 
Great River Media Inc.
Suite 500 - 250 City Centre Avenue
Ottawa, ON K1R 6K7
www.greatriver.ca
 
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
For inquiries about the book, or to contact the author, visit:
www.truthabouttrudeau.ca
 
Book design: Carole McLachlin
Preface
We must concern ourselves with politics, as Pascal said, to mitigate as far as possible the damage done by the madness of our rulers.
Pierre Elliot Trudeau
 
There is much to admire about Pierre Trudeau. He espoused a clear and consistent vision. He demonstrated exceptional intellect and toughness. He charmed a nation with his irreverence and charisma. And he led our country through a rocky period of rising Quebec nationalism when politicians from English Canada struggled in their dealings with la belle province.
Our fascination with Canada’s third-longest-serving prime minister has sustained a large catalogue of bestsellers. Many are flattering reflections by his friends and others of like mind and persuasion. Trudeau himself authored or co-authored 11 books covering his time in office. As Winston Churchill reportedly said, “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
This literary blitzkrieg paid off. In the 2006 nationwide populist search conducted by the CBC for the Greatest Canadian of all time, Trudeau ranked number three, above all other prime ministers.
But Pierre Trudeau is not universally admired. Critics deemed his vision too centrist and his style too arrogant. Pirouettes behind the Queen were not cute, but condescending. Flipping his middle finger at voters in Salmon Arm was not irreverent, but insulting. Yes, Quebec remained in Canada during Trudeau’s tenure, but its nationalist forces grew in response to his intransigence, leading to the near loss of the 1995 Quebec referendum. And Western alienation established deep roots as a consequence of Trudeau’s National Energy Program. When Beaver Magazine (now Canada’s History ) conducted an online poll in 2007 to name “Canada’s worst person,” after the 15,000 ballots were counted, Pierre Trudeau topped the list.
Being a great prime minister is about more than winning and losing popularity contests. More important is what a prime minister accomplishes for current and future generations. When we periodically re-examine Macdonald’s vision for Canada, Robert Borden’s wartime policies, R.B. Bennett’s management of the Depression, William Lyon Mackenzie King’s handling of Conscription, and Brian Mulroney’s leap on Free Trade, we are not simply deciding if they were correct in their time, but whether their wisdom and judgment has stood the test of time.
As for Trudeau, surely the passions for and against the man have cooled to the point where Canadians can objectively assess how he changed Canada, for better and for worse. Did he leave the nation stronger and more united, or weaker and more divided? Did he prove to be a transformative leader with enduring accomplishments, or a prime minister whose actions have been undone by his successors?
When 117 academics and other experts were asked by Maclean’s magazine in 2007 to rate our prime ministers, Trudeau ranked number five out of the nine who held office for more than a single term. That’s the middle of the pack, and far below the rating that Trudeau receives in public opinion surveys in which he is consistently rated among the very best prime ministers. But even a cursory review of the record reveals that Trudeau’s critics have a point:
• The discrepancy between the strong economic position Trudeau inherited from his predecessor and the calamity he left to his successor could not be more stark. The accumulated deficit under Trudeau rose tenfold, from $19.4 billion to $194.4 billion, or from 25.5 percent of GDP to 43.2 percent. The unemployment rate was 4.5 percent in 1968 versus 11.2 percent in 1984. The annual budgetary deficit was 0.9 percent of GDP in 1968 and 8.3 percent in 1984. Total annual federal spending was $12.9 billion when Trudeau became PM and was $109.2 billion when he quit, leaping from 17 percent of GDP to 24.2 percent. Trudeau’s record on inflation, fueled by government spending that rose an average of close to 15 percent over his 15.5 years in office, was the worst among developed nations. Under Trudeau, our currency fell 17 percent against the American dollar, 47 percent against the Japanese Yen, and 68 percent relative to the German Mark.
• While poverty for seniors declined under Trudeau, the general income gap between rich and poor Canadians remained unchanged. When he left office, 42.7 percent of unattached seniors lived in poverty, as did one in six children, and 42.5 percent of households headed by women — compared with just 13.2 percent in the early 1960s.
• It is a myth that Trudeau opened up the country to scores of new immigrants. When he left office, the relative immigration rate was one-third what it was in 1968.
• In world affairs, Canadians say they were proud to have had a strong intellect representing their country. But Trudeau undermined our alliances, pointlessly annoyed our major trading partners and cozied up to communist dictators. His panache and flair got attention, but did not advance Canadian interests. His talk about North-South, a Third Option, and his peace initiative were ridiculed. As one American observer commented, Trudeau did not have enough country to satisfy his ambitions.
• While Trudeau defiantly opposed Quebec separatists and implemented official bilingualism, no prime minister did more damage to national unity. More than 30 years later, the West has not forgiven Trudeau for his National Energy Program. While Trudeau helped win the 1980 Quebec referendum for the NO side, he did so by misleading the people of Quebec — and then implemented constitutional reform that their government opposed. Along the way he made life difficult for many federalists on the ground in Quebec who were trying to win hearts and minds.
• Trudeau’s major judicial achievement, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, is not the panacea its proponents assert. While far from revolutionary, over time the Charter Americanized our constitution, made our culture more litigious, enabled judicial activism, and gave parliamentarians an excuse to duck sensitive issues.
• On matters of personal freedom, Trudeau was at best inconsistent. He presided over the most serious suspension of civil liberties since World War II — on false pretenses. Rather than responding to a provincial request, the invocation of the War Measures Act in October 1970 was Trudeau’s idea. And for all his purported love of liberty, during his time in office Trudeau restricted the ability of Canadians to choose their own health care, their music, and the television shows they wanted to watch.
• Far from being a “green” prime minister, Trudeau let Canada fall behind the United States on environmental protection. He subsidized the price of oil, invested in the oil sands, and opened the far north for exploration.
• Politically, while Trudeau won four of five federal elections, after 1968 he lost every contest outside of the province of Quebec. In his wake, the Liberal Party of Canada has struggled as a national political force.
• Even in retirement Trudeau left his mark. When Mulroney and all provincial premiers agreed to a constitutional package at Meech Lake in 1987, Trudeau used his influence to scuttle the deal. Gordon Robertson, a former clerk of the Privy Council who served under Pearson and Trudeau, concluded that nothing in Canadian history rivaled the irresponsibility of Trudeau in helping to destroy the only prospect of an agreement that would bring Quebec into willing acceptance of the Constitution.
Pierre Trudeau was certainly an intriguing, intelligent, charismatic, visionary and fearless leader. But on the fundamental question of whether he advanced and strengthened the nation, he fell well short of the mark. Canadians may have admired his personal qualities, but we should have been wary of a man with a radical past whose ideas had never been tested.
So let us, as Trudeau liked to say, be coolly intelligent and follow reason over passion. Let us examine the evidence, review the record, and learn the truth about Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
Chapter 1
The Trudeau doctrine
Personally, I tend to discount the weight of our influence in the world.
 
Pierre Trudeau once said that everything he needed to know about foreign affairs he could read in the New York Times. 1 More than a colourful quip, it embodied Trudeau’s liberation from the Department of Foreign Affairs and its more structured approach to diplomacy. Rather than ground foreign policy in our economic and security interests, Canadian foreign affairs became Trudeau’s personal domain. While he produced a few b