National Post Article On PET's Legacy

[Halifax Tar]

Interesting article,  I was too young to have a memory of PET.  But I would love to hear what other who were cognative around that time have to say.


http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/pierre-trudeaus-disastrous-record-is-finally-laid-out-for-all-to-see

 

[Loachman]

I concur.

He is the reason that I immediately distrust charismatic leaders. Obama and Trudeau II back that up perfectly.

 

[Rocky Mountains]

My opinion at the time was that he should have been tried for treason and hung.  Never have we had such a divisive prime minister.  He truly despised anything outside Quebec.  Quebec separatism rose and thrived under his watch and has been in slow decline since.  He was followed by Mulroney, another Quebec first prime minister.  Funny but I never perceived Chretien as that way.

 

[a_majoor]

Although the Sun King styled himself as an internationalist, his neglect of traditional alliances and power structures, and the diminution of the Armed Forces during his watch saw Canada's international presence and influence dwindle away. This is also the time that Canada became very dependent on trade with the United States, and one of the legacy breaking actions that Prime Minister Mulroney managed to pass was the FTA, which started Canada reengaging globally (we opened up Free Trade with Mexico, and over the years since we opened Free Trade with many other nations, including such diverse places as Chile and Israel).

The Sun King essentially tried to turn Canada inwards (and we still suffer from this "Little Canada" syndrome today), as well as erasing the British and Imperial symbols and political and social structures which underlay Canadian culture up to that point. As noted, many of his initiatives polarized Canadians and essentially tribalized or fragmented many formerly cohesive groups. My own take on this, looking back with 20/20 hindsight, is this was a deliberate "divide and conquer" tactic to fragment political opposition to the Liberal Party.

YMMV

 

[Edward Campbell]

In fairness to Prime Minister Peirre Trudeau, I think you must look at the "time and space" factors: specifically at Québec in the 1930s.

It should certainly not be surprising that Pierre Trudeau, like so many, many young men of his age and societal standing (his father, old Charlie Trudeau, was rich and a true self-made man), was strongly influenced by Abbé Lionel Groulx and his French nationalist and fascist/Nazi/Vichy sympathizing Ligue d'Action française.

In the late 1940s, having sat out the war in Harvard, Pierre Trudeau went to Europe for further studies and concluded:

    a. On reflection, that his wartime position had been ill-considered and he found himself on the wrong side of history; and

    b. On further academic study that nationalism was the root cause of all of Europe's 20th century horrors. He turned his back on Abbé Groulx and, with a convert's zeal, switched to a leftist position, seeing the USSR,
        for example, as the shape of a post-nationalist future.

If you accept Isaiah Berlin's fox vs. hedgehog theory then Pierre Trudeau was a classic hedgehog: he had one big idea ~ nationalism is the root of all evil ~ and he saw every issue through that lens.

I think Pierre Trudeau was an intellectual lightweight ~ proof that a first rate education cannot improve a second rate mind ~ and it must have been dreadful, for him, to have to deal with the likes of Gordon Robertson, Robert Bryce and John Pickersgill, which, I think, might help explain why he tried to emasculate the civil service, especially PCO and External Affairs and, to a lesser degree, Finance. It wasn't, in my opinion, because he, Trudeau, had other, different ideas, it was because he hated (and felt inferior to?) the Oxbridge establishment in those departments.

 

[jollyjacktar]

As a young Albertan in the late 70's early 80's I will always remember the effect of the National Energy Program had on the economy.  Virtually overnight, he sunk the jobs market and caused a great deal of pain.  For that alone, I shall always despise him and Marc Lalonde both. 

I'm really damned if I can think of anything positive to say about the man in all honesty.

 

[Rocky Mountains]

As a young Albertan in the late 70's early 80's I will always remember the effect of the National Energy Program had on the economy.  Virtually overnight, he sunk the jobs market and caused a great deal of pain.  For that alone, I shall always despise him and Marc Lalonde both. 

I spent 1983 on Pogey.  When that ran out, I got a big student loan and went back to school for another degree.  There were more job ads a couple years ago in the oilpatch town I live in than there were in Edmonton or Calgary back then.  I still have to make a pilgrimage to Montreal to urinate on Pierre Trudeau's grave, I dislike the man so much.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I like that he tried to make changes that would convince Quebeckers they had a place in Canada; I dislike that he didn't realize it would never be enough.  Everyone wants to be special, not equal.

The repatriation of the constitution and Charter of Rights missed a chance to write a good one; it would have been easy to pick the best parts of the US model and improve on it with 200 years of hindsight, but even that turned out to be too much power to set aside for Canadian federal and provincial politicians.

The fiscal record is a disaster.  Nothing we paid for during the decade 1975-1985 has been worth the amount of debt servicing costs paid since.