Trudeaumania
Page 32
Even on election night, Canadians were hard-pressed to make sense of what, exactly, had happened. Vancouver Sun columnist Shelley Fralic captured the mood brilliantly the next morning. “Pierre Elliott Trudeau had the royal jelly,” she wrote.
His boy Justin does not. Instead, Justin’s new-age version of Trudeaumania, and surely that is the red tide that swept across our country Monday night, is something quite different, quite unlike the heady alchemic mix of confidence, arrogance and joie de vivre that so defined his father’s reign. Because while dad was a maverick who traded on intellect and controversy, the son is a reined-in populist who represents hope and change, a difference never more clear than the sudden realization, upon waking up Tuesday morning, that Canada has suddenly emerged from a prolonged fog, a shroud of staleness erased by a brisk wind and a fresh coat of paint.20
Trudeaumania 2.0 crashed in upon Canadians over the next few days as national media scrambled to provide new narratives for the Liberal victory. Even more important, it took scant hours for international media and wired citizens everywhere to render “viral” their discovery that Canada’s new prime minister was a warm and sexy Gen-Xer. “Canada’s new Prime Minister is a Smoking-Hot Syrupy Fox,” said one of “a zillion” Twitter feeds.21 Trudeau himself lost no time stoking this international media frenzy. The morning after his electoral triumph, he was filmed greeting commuters in a Montreal Metro station and posing for the “Justin and me” selfies that had become the symbol of his populist appeal. It was the most un-Stephen-Harper way the new prime minister could have ushered in his majority mandate, proof that a new political day had dawned in Canada. One week after this election victory, Trudeau’s national approval rating rose to an astounding 60 per cent.
As in 1968, analogies were made to JFK, and not merely because the new Canadian prime minister and his picture-perfect family were the stuff of Canadian royalty. Even before he was sworn in, Trudeau made it clear that he would move immediately on the key planks of the Liberal platform (tax cuts and the admission of Syrian refugees), giving his government a “one hundred days” urgency reminiscent of Kennedy’s 1960 inaugural. Ordinary Canadians were invited to Rideau Hall on November 4, 2015, and 3,500 of them showed up—transforming a stodgy parliamentary ritual into one of the most memorable swearing-in ceremonies in Canadian history. When Trudeau unveiled his diverse-by-design cabinet, he told Canadians that it was an “incredible pleasure to present a cabinet that looks like Canada.” Asked why he had named an equal number of men and women to cabinet, he replied with a terse one-liner that would have made his late father smile: “Because it’s 2015.”22
New York Times columnist Roger Cohen gave voice to many Canadians’—and Americans’—quiet pleasure at witnessing the Trudeau succession. “Camelot has come to Canada,” he wrote. “For a moment at least, the duller part of North America looks sexier than its overweening cousin to the south. The incoming prime minister is very much his father’s son, a natural charmer. There’s no point denying it. The American political field looks wizened by comparison. The political tide has turned in Canada.”23
The day he was sworn in, November 4, 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took his two eldest children, Xavier and Ella-Grace, to the Centre Block of the Canadian Parliament Buildings, which then stood empty and silent. At one point, they walked along the south corridor of the Commons foyer, which is lined with the official portraits of Canadian prime ministers. Stopping at the portrait of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Justin asked, “Who is that?”
“Grandpapa,” said Ella-Grace with a smile.24
NOTES
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN NOTES
AP—Associated Press
CAR—Canadian Annual Review
CBC—Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
CBCDA—CBC Digital Archives
CH—Calgary Herald
CP—Canadian Press
CWM—CanWest Media
CL—Cité libre
GM—Globe and Mail
HCH—Halifax Chronicle Herald
JM—Le Journal de Montréal
LA—L’Action
LAC—Library and Archives Canada
LD—Le Devoir
LDR—Le Droit
LP—La Presse
LS—Le Soleil
M—Maclean’s
MG—Montreal Gazette
NP—National Post
NYT—New York Times
OC—Ottawa Citizen
SDR—Sherbrooke Daily Record
TS—Toronto Star
VS—Vancouver Sun
WT—Winnipeg Tribune
PROLOGUE: TRUDEAU TO THE GALLOWS!
1.Pierre Trudeau, cited in “Trudeau Flirted with Socialism,” TS (April 8, 1968), 10.
2.Cited in Andrew Salwyn, “We’ll Kill Trudeau Monday,” TS (June 24, 1968), 9.
3.See Jean-Claude Leclerc, “Au congrès des sociétés Saint-Jean-Baptiste: Une attaque contre le fédéralisme de Trudeau,” LD (June 6, 1968), 2.
4.Pierre Bourgault, cited in Ronald Lebel, “PM Asked to Review SJB Parade,” GM (May 31, 1968), 8; and “Trudeau assistera au défilé de la St-Jean,” LD (June 19, 1968), 2.
5.Ramsay Cook, The Teeth of Time: Remembering Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006), 76.
6.Pierre Trudeau, cited in Frank Jones, “Trudeau Defies Separatists,” TS (June 25, 1968), 1, 4.
7.Cook, The Teeth of Time, 76.
8.Graham Fraser, René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois in Power (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1984), 44–45.
9.Pierre Trudeau, cited in Peter C. Newman, “Separatism? It’s Dying Says Quebec Thinker,” TS (January 30, 1965), 7.
10.Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Federalism and the French Canadians (Toronto: Macmillan, 1968), 204–12.
11.Fraser, René Lévesque and the Parti Québécois in Power, 38.
12.Pierre Bourgault, cited in Robert McKenzie, “Quebec’s ‘International Role’ Theme of St. Jean Baptiste Day,” TS (June 26, 1967), 3.
13.“Lévesque Suspends Negotiations with Bourgault Separatists,” CH (June 28, 1968), 7.
14.“The FLQ Manifesto,” in Quebec States Her Case, ed. Frank Scott and Michael Oliver (Toronto: Macmillan, 1964), 83–87.
15.Gérard Pelletier, “Stage Two on the Road to Disaster,” in Scott and Oliver, Quebec States Her Case, 88–90.
16.David A. Charters, “The (Un)Peaceable Kingdom? Terrorism and Canada before 9/11,” IRPP Policy Matters 9, 4 (October 2008): 16.
17.René Lévesque, “For an Independent Quebec,” in Quebec since 1945, ed. Michael D. Behiels (Toronto: Copp Clark Pitman, 1987), 272.
18.See John Saywell, ed., CAR 1964 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1965), 45.
19.Louis Fournier, FLQ: The Anatomy of an Underground Movement (Toronto: NC Press, 1984), 28.
20.Pierre Trudeau, cited in Peter C. Newman, “Trudeau: I Have a Feeling for Canada,” TS (April 29, 1968), 1, 4.
21.Pierre Bourgault, cited in “Rhinoceros Party Is All-Out for Trudeau,” TS (March 13, 1968), 3.
22.Pierre Bourgault, cited in “Separatists Want Trudeau as Next PM,” GM (February 19, 1968), 1.
23.Pierre Bourgault, cited in Andrew Salwyn, “Police in Montreal Fear Anti-PM Riot,” TS (June 21, 1968), 58; Ronald Lebel, “Separatists Assail PM,” GM (June 22, 1968), 10; and editorial, “Separatist Hatred Would Push Quebec into Past,” GM (June 22, 1968), 6.
24.Claude Ryan, cited in Robert Miller, “The Flying Bottle, the Ugly Infamy, Horrified Drapeau,” TS (June 25, 1968), 1, 4. See also Claude Ryan, “Les événements de lundi soir,” LD (June 26, 1968), 4; and Stan McDowell, “Editor Criticizes Trudeau for Braving Parade Threat,” VS (June 26, 1968), 22A.
25.Marcel Faribault, cited in “Trudeau, Faribault Meet at Party,” CP (June 25, 1968); and “PM Provoked Trouble—Faribault,” OC (June 25, 1968), 4A.
26.Pierre Trudeau, cited in “Trudeau, Faribault Meet at Party.”
27.Editorial, “Hate’s Bitte
r Contagion,” GM (June 25, 1968), 6. See also Vincent Prince, “M. Bourgault et son appel à la violence,” LD (June 25, 1968), 4; and editorial, “Separatist Riots,” CH (June 26, 1968), 6.
28.Jean-Paul Gilbert, cited in Andrew Salwyn, “Police Ask: Who Trained the Terrorists?” TS (June 25, 1968), 1.
29.Jones, “Trudeau Defies Separatists,” 1, 4; Ian MacDonald, “Pierre Confronts Rioters,” VS (June 25, 1968), 7; “Trudeau tient tête aux manifestants,” LD (June 25, 1968), 1; and “Réactions diverses à la soirée de violence,” LD (June 26, 1968), 3.
30.Pierre Trudeau, cited in Jones, “Trudeau Defies Separatists,” 1, 4.
31.Ibid.
32.John Saywell, ed., CAR 1968 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969), 50–52.
33.Gerd-Rainer Horn, The Spirit of ’68: Rebellion in Western Europe and North America, 1956–1976 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 1. See also Carole Fink, Philipp Gassert, and Detlef Junker, 1968: The World Transformed (Washington, D.C.: German Historical Institute, 1998), introduction.
34.See, for example, Bob Plamondon, The Truth about Trudeau (Ottawa: Great River Media, 2013), ch. 9.
35.See, for example, James Laxer and Robert Laxer, The Liberal Idea of Canada: Pierre Trudeau and the Question of Canada’s Survival (Toronto: Lorimer, 1977).
36.Guy Laforest, Trudeau et la fin d’un rêve canadien (Montréal: Septentrion, 1992).
37.For example, Kenneth McRoberts wrote: “Needless to say, such an intense rejection of nationalism and of ethnically or culturally defined collectivities came naturally to someone who himself did not feel a clear membership in any such collectivity. Clearly, the vision of Canada that Trudeau had so carefully and eloquently constructed differed radically from the way in which most Canadians saw their country. This was true even of French Canadians. Despite some superficial similarities, the Trudeau vision was in fact quite removed from mainstream French-Canadian thought. But most English Canadians did not know that.” See McRoberts, Misconceiving Canada: The Struggle for National Unity (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1997), 59–64. See also Michel Vastel, The Outsider: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Toronto: Macmillan, 1992).
38.See Richard Gwyn, The Northern Magus: Pierre Trudeau and Canadians (Toronto: PaperJacks, 1981), 295; and Richard Gwyn, “Trudeau: The Idea of Canadianism,” in Trudeau’s Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, eds. Andrew Cohen and J.L. Granatstein (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 1998), 26.
39.Larry Zolf, Dance of the Dialectic (Toronto: James, Lewis & Samuel, 1973), 25.
40.Pierre Berton, 1967: The Last Good Year (Toronto: Doubleday, 1997), 108.
41.Bryan D. Palmer, Canada’s 1960s: The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009), 169.
42.Peter C. Newman, Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2004), 322.
43.Peter C. Newman, The Distemper of Our Times (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1968), 435.
44.Peter C. Newman, A Nation Divided: Canada and the Coming of Pierre Trudeau (New York: Knopf, 1969), xiii.
45.Lester B. Pearson, Mike: The Memoirs of the Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson, vol. 3, 1957–1968, ed. John A. Munro and Alex I. Inglis (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1975), 304.
46.W.A.C. Bennett, cited in “Bennett Calls Trudeau a ‘Playboy,’” CP (March 20, 1968).
47.Michael Oliver, “Introduction,” in Scott and Oliver, Quebec States Her Case, 5.
48.Maxwell Cohen, “The Five Steps to a United Canada,” GM (October 3, 1967), 7.
49.Walter Stewart, Shrug: Trudeau in Power (Toronto: New Press, 1971), 12.
50.Christina McCall and Stephen Clarkson, Trudeau and Our Times, vol. 1, The Magnificent Obsession (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1990), 113.
51.Pierre Trudeau, cited in “Trudeau Doesn’t Want Parliament Televised,” TS (March 21, 1968), 40.
52.Frank Jones, “How Does Trudeau Rate in the Commons?” TS (April 20, 1968), 8.
53.Larry Zolf, “Humble Arrogance: A Cautionary Tale of Trudeau and the Media,” in Cohen and Granatstein, Trudeau’s Shadow, 39.
54.Turner had his own problems, according to one unnamed supporter: “His problem is he’s too good-looking. People see him and they think there must be something phony. If he were just a little uglier, he’d be a lot better off.” Cited in Jack Cahill, John Turner: The Long Run (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1984), 121.
55.Christina McCall-Newman, Grits: An Intimate Portrait of the Liberal Party (Toronto: Macmillan, 1982), 60–61.
56.Ibid., 120.
57.Pierre Trudeau wrote, “I never claimed to speak ‘on behalf’ of anyone. If the [Liberal] Party does not agree with my opinions, it can repudiate me; if my constituents do not, they can elect someone else.” See Trudeau, Federalism and the French Canadians, xxvi.
58.Gérard Pelletier, “Preface to the French Edition,” in Trudeau, Federalism and the French Canadians, xvi. See also Pelletier, “Trudeau Travelled the World with a Knapsack on His Back,” TS (January 6, 1968), 8.
59.John Porter, cited in Frank Jones, “Trudeau Would be Legalistic Quibbler Sociologist Warns,” TS (June 13, 1968), 8.
60.Trudeau, Federalism and the French Canadians, 53.
CHAPTER ONE: THE STUBBORN ECCENTRIC
1.In his 1986 memoir, René Lévesque identified himself as one of four “musketeers” contemplating entering provincial politics in 1960 as a Lesage Liberal. The others were Marchand, Pelletier, and Trudeau. See Lévesque, Memoirs, trans. Philip Stratford (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1986), 150.
2.See Max Nemni and Monique Nemni, Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919–1944, trans. William Johnson (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2006); and Max Nemni and Monique Nemni, Trudeau Transformed: The Shaping of a Statesman, trans. George Tombs (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2011).
3.Pierre Trudeau, cited in Nemni and Nemni, Young Trudeau, 51.
4.Pierre Trudeau, cited ibid., 95.
5.Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Memoirs (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1993), 38, 61.
6.See Michael Gauvreau, Catholic Origins of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, 1931–1970 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005), 117–19.
7.Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Federalism and the French Canadians (Toronto: Macmillan, 1968), xxiii.
8.Trudeau, Memoirs, 40.
9.See Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983). See also George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism (London: Secker and Warburg, 1953; first published in 1945).
10.Pierre Elliott Trudeau, “The Conflicts of Nationalisms in Canada,” in Quebec States Her Case, ed. Frank Scott and Michael Oliver (Toronto: Macmillan, 1964), 63. Ramsay Cook noted that “Trudeau knew that the distinction often drawn by nationalists between ‘good’ nationalism (mine) and ‘bad’ nationalism (yours) did not stand up to serious analysis.” See Cook, The Teeth of Time: Remembering Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2006), 32–33.
11.Michel Brunet, “The French Canadians’ Search for a Fatherland,” in Nationalism in Canada, ed. Peter Russell (Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 1966), 56.
12.Ibid., 60.
13.Pierre Trudeau, cited in Jocelyn Maclure, Quebec Identity: The Challenge of Pluralism (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press 2003), 91. See also Michel Brunet, L’Historien Michel Brunet Juge Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Montréal: Guérin, 2000), ch. 1.
14.Trudeau, Memoirs, 48.
15.Ibid., 52.
16.Ibid., 53.
17.See Robert Wright, Three Nights in Havana: Pierre Trudeau, Fidel Castro and the Cold War World (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2007).
18.Trudeau once called Joe Clark “head waiter to the provinces,” for example, and Brian Mulroney “our Great Oarsman.” See Thomas S. Axworthy and Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Towards a Just Society: The Trudeau Years (Toronto: Penguin Canada, 1992), 429.
19.Trudeau, Memoirs, 62�
��63.
20.Pierre Elliott Trudeau, “The Asbestos Strike,” in Against the Current: Selected Writings 1939–1996 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1996), 43. See also Pierre Elliott Trudeau, La grève de l’amiante (Montréal: Éditions Cité libre, 1956); Trudeau, Memoirs, 62–63; Christo Aivalis, “In the Name of Liberalism: Pierre Trudeau, Organized Labour, and the Canadian Social Democratic Left, 1949–1959,” Canadian Historical Review 94, 2 (June 2013): 263–88; and Kristy A. Holmes, “Negotiating Citizenship: Joyce Wieland’s Reason over Passion,” in The Sixties: Passion, Politics, and Style, ed. Dimitry Anastakis (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2008), 45.
21.John English, “War and the Canadian Liberal Conscience,” in Australia, Canada and Iraq: Perspectives on an Invasion, ed. Ramesh Thakur and Jack Cunningham (Toronto: Dundurn, 2015), 115.
22.Trudeau, Memoirs, 65.
23.Gérard Pelletier, cited in Michael D. Behiels, Prelude to Quebec’s Quiet Revolution: Liberalism versus Neo-Nationalism, 1945–1960 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1985), 64.
24.Pierre Trudeau, “Politique fonctionnelle I,” CL 1 (June 1950): 21.
25.Gretta Chambers, “The Sixties in Print: Remembering Quebec’s Quiet Revolution,” in Anastakis, The Sixties, 19.
26.Trudeau, Memoirs, 71–75.
27.Frank Howard, “Will Ottawa Lure Back Quebec Talent?” GM (September 25, 1965), A2.
28.See Kenneth McRoberts, Quebec: Social Change and Political Crisis, 3rd ed. (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1993), ch. 5.
29.Trudeau, Memoirs, 71–75.
30.Marcel Chaput, Pourquoi je suis séparatiste (Montréal: Les Éditions du Jour, 1961).
31.Trudeau, “The Conflicts of Nationalisms in Canada,” 57. This article was excerpted from Trudeau’s 1962 article “The New Treason of the Intellectuals.”