by John English
25. The best description of the change of mood, from which this account is taken, is found in Foster, Blue-Eyed Sheiks, 43–45. On the firms and the oil sands. The federal document describing the problems for the consuming provinces is An Energy Strategy for Canada: Policies for Self Reliance (Ottawa: Dept. of Supply and Services, 1976), 31–40.
26. Trudeau’s speech is excerpted and Bourassa’s comment is reported in Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review 1975, 70–71.
27. On Choquette and his party, see Le Devoir, Nov. 11, 1975. For the events of 1975, see the chapter on Quebec by Jean-Charles Bonenfant in Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review 1975, 146–61. Trudeau’s comments on Bill 22 are in his Memoirs, 234. See also Robert Bothwell, Canada and Quebec: One Country, Two Histories, rev. ed. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1998), chap. 8, and Don Murray and Vera Murray, De Bourassa à Lévesque (Montréal: Quinze, 1978).
28. Québec, Commission d’enquête sur l’exercice de la liberté syndicale dans l’industrie de la construction (Québec: Éditeur officiel du Québec, 1975), 176; Forget, quoted in Bothwell, Canada and Quebec, 152.
29. The original account is in Le Soleil, March 6, 1975. A full description of the context is found in Gérard Bergeron, Notre Miroir à deux faces (Montréal: Québec Amérique, 1985), 149.
30. Globe and Mail, April 14, 1974.
31. The letters are found in Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review 1976, 73–74, which has an excellent account of the controversy and press reaction. The definitive study, which upholds the government’s position, is Sandford Borins, The Language of the Skies: The Bilingual Air Traffic Control Conflict in Canada (Montreal and Kingston: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 1983).
32. L. Ian MacDonald, From Bourassa to Bourassa: Wilderness to Restoration, 2nd ed. (Montreal and Kingston: McGill–Queen’s University Press, 2002), ix–x. The description of the meeting between Bourassa and Trudeau in the Hilton Hotel in Quebec City, arranged by Charles Denis, who was an adviser to Bourassa, is found in Charles Denis, Robert Bourassa: La Passion de la politique (Montréal: Fides, 2006), 344–45. Trudeau, quoted in Denis, Bourassa, 349.
33. René Lévesque, Memoirs, trans. Philip Stratford (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1986), 265.
34. MacDonald, Bourassa to Bourassa, ix–x. Polling figures and a description of the resurgence of the Union nationale are found in Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review 1976, 118–23.
35. Bergeron, Notre Miroir, 148; Pierre Godin, René Lévesque: Un Homme et son rêve 1922–1987 (Montréal: Boréal, 2007), 316. Claude Forget, a Bourassa minister, agreed. He thought Trudeau’s remark about Bourassa as a “hot dog eater” was a “tremendous slight.” He told Bourassa: “Everybody in your government feels personally insulted if you are insulted, and we want you to say something and bite back.” Bourassa refused to respond. Quoted in Bothwell, Canada and Quebec, 152.
36. Lévesque’s comments on Nov. 15, 1976, are taken from his Memoirs, 275. Trudeau’s speech that night is from Montreal Gazette, Nov. 16, 1976.
37. Bergeron, Notre Miroir, 148; Trudeau, Memoirs, 240–41. In the original interview, Trudeau made the “fat in the fire” comment. Trudeau interview with Ron Graham, May 7, 1991, TP, MG 26 03, vol. 23, file 10, LAC.
38. Margaret Trudeau, Beyond Reason (New York and London: Paddington Press, 1979), 185–86, in which the bad state of the marriage in the fall of 1976 is described; conversation with Margaret Trudeau, June 2009.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: BEYOND REASON
1. Linda Griffiths with Paul Thompson, Maggie and Pierre: A Fantasy of Love, Politics, and the Media (Toronto, Vancouver, and Los Angeles: Talonbooks, 1980), 11, 19. The play was previewed in the Backspace at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto on November 30, 1979. It opened in the Mainspace at the theatre on Valentine’s Day, 1980, with Linda Griffiths playing Margaret, Pierre—and Henry, a journalist commentator. Griffiths’ later comments are in her “The Lover: Dancing with Trudeau,” in Trudeau’s Shadow: The Life and Legacy of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, ed. Andrew Cohen and J.L. Granatstein (Toronto: Random House, 1998), 45. Griffiths modified her harsh view of Trudeau because of comments from friends. Interview with Gale Zoë Garnett, Oct. 2007. In her book Consequences, Margaret included a photo of Linda Griffiths in the play. The caption reads: “I was filled with admiration for Linda Griffiths’ performance in her play MAGGIE & PIERRE” (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982), 107.
2. Margaret Trudeau, Beyond Reason (New York and London: Paddington Press, 1979); Pierre Trudeau, Memoirs (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1993), 179, 184.
3. Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall, The Magnificent Obsession, vol. 1 of Trudeau and Our Times (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1990), 136. Rick Butler and Jean-Guy Carrier, The Trudeau Decade (Toronto: Doubleday, 1979) includes an editorial by Michel Roy of Le Devoir of June 4, 1977, analyzing the difference in coverage between English and French Canada, 352–53. For another point of view, see Globe and Mail, Sept. 25, 1974. J.T. Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs 1974 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1975) makes only a short reference to Margaret’s presence in the campaign and none to her troubles in the fall. Between September 1, 1974, and June 11, 1977, the Globe and Mail website has 2,101 hits for “Margaret Trudeau.”
4. Trudeau, Beyond Reason, 184. The transcript of the interview is found in Globe and Mail, Oct. 28, 1974. On November 5, the leading Globe columnist Geoffrey Stevens criticized the interview for its contradictions.
5. Simone Florence, Creeds, Aug. 5, 1974, TP, MG 26 020, vol. 17, file 5, LAC. The file also contains bills for clothing, which appear to be totals. They are $3,654.24 at Holt Renfrew and $4,522.57 at Creeds. Nancy Pitfield is described by Margaret as her “closest friend” at the time (Beyond Reason, 168). Conversation with Marc Lalonde, Oct. 2006; conversation with Carroll Guérin, Aug. 2007; several confidential sources. Margaret Trudeau.
6. Ottawa to Copenhagen, May 20, 1975, EAP, RG25, vol. 9246, file 20-CDA-9-Trudeau-Scan, LAC; interview with Margaret Trudeau, Feb. 2006. In 1975 Trudeau was away on official trips from February 26 to March 15 in Europe, April 24 to May 7 in the Caribbean, May 27 to June 1 in Europe, and July 28 to August 5 in Finland and Poland, and he made an official visit to Washington on October 23. There were additional private trips with King Hussein of Jordan, whose wife was a close friend of Margaret, and there were several other private trips. The New Yorker has placed Fear of Flying, which has sold eighteen million copies, in the “canon” of major literature. See Rebecca Mead, “Still Flying,” New Yorker, April 14, 2008, 23.
7. Margaret Trudeau describes the visit in Beyond Reason, 143ff. The problems are noted in H.B. Robinson, “Memorandum for the Minister,” Jan. 8, 1976, EAP, RG 25, vol. 11089, file 21-3-Angola, LAC. A full account of the visit is found in Robert Wright, Three Nights in Havana: Pierre Trudeau, Fidel Castro, and the Cold War World (Toronto: Harper Collins, 2007).
8. Hyndman, quoted in Wright, Three Nights in Havana, 169. Hyndman recalled that “Pierre was very, very sensitive to her, doing a great deal to cope with the pressures that were on her, and to keep the two of them together.” The Castro quotation comes from Trudeau, Beyond Reason, 148. I discussed Castro with Ms. Trudeau in Havana in February 2006, the thirtieth anniversary of the trip. She remarked that Castro always spoke English with her, though he insisted on Spanish with others and though Pierre spoke fluent Spanish. Trudeau was surprised to discover that Castro, despite heavy smoking, could hold his breath for a full minute underwater while spearfishing. Contrary to expectations, the prime minister found Castro was “very thoughtful and didn’t overindulge in monologues; he would throw out questions and be prepared to have an exchange of views with you.” Jesuitical, one might say. Trudeau, Memoirs, 210.
9. Trudeau, Beyond Reason, 144.
10. Ibid., 146–49.
11. Ibid., 150–51; Globe and Mail, Feb. 3, 1976.
12. Trudeau, Beyond Reason, 159–60.
13. Ibid., 157–58; co
nfidential interviews; and New York Times, Dec. 30, 2006.
14. Quoted in Trudeau, Beyond Reason, 182–83.
15. John Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs 1977 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979), simply reported that “Pierre Trudeau suffered a personal tragedy when at the end of May his wife Margaret formally separated from him leaving their three children with the prime minister.” Trudeau had begun the year behind the Conservatives by ten points, but in June his party led, with 51 percent support (compared to 27 percent support for the Conservatives) (31, 37). The Conservative Toronto Sun was especially focused on the Trudeau separation, as was the Journal de Montréal, which broke with the discretion observed by most of the francophone press.
16. Trip with Sinclair: TP, MG 26 020, vol. 17, file 13, LAC. Margaret’s father consistently supported Trudeau, not only in this period but also after their separation. The comment on Trudeau’s body and his age is from Sheena Paterson and Mary McEwan, “Margaret Trudeau’s Struggle for Identity: Victor or Victim?,” Chatelaine, Aug. 1977, 92. Quotation from Trudeau, Beyond Reason, 160. Jordan trip and the “detestable” description, ibid., 156. Incident with quilt, ibid., 186. Interview with Peter C. Newman, Maclean’s, Oct. 20, 1975, 6.
17. Warren’s comments are found in Warren to Ottawa, Feb. 4, 1977, RG 25, vol. 9246, file 20-CDA-9-Trudeau-USA, LAC; interview with Arthur Erickson, Sept. 2007. The details of the dinner are found in Records of the First Lady, Mary Hoyt file, box 20, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. Interview with Jimmy Carter, April 2008; Washington Post, Feb. 22, 1977; and Globe and Mail, Feb. 21–25, 1977 (editorial on the 25th). Report on press coverage: Canadian Consulate, New York, to External Affairs, March 1, 1977, RG 25, vol. 9246, file 20-CDA-9-Trudeau-USA, LAC.
18. The Carter letter is found in Records of the First Lady, Mary Hoyt file, box 20, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library. Trudeau, Beyond Reason, 189. The Trudeau reply, dated March 4, is found in EAP, RG25, vol. 9246, file 20-Cda-9-Trudeau-USA, LAC.
19. Margaret is the source of the story on the Stones’ visit to her suite and the hash smoking (Beyond Reason, 191). Wasserman’s apology for his erroneous remarks and Jagger’s comment are reported in Globe and Mail, March 10, 1977.
20. Patrick Gossage, Close to the Charisma: My Years between the Press and Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Halifax: Goodread Biographies, 1987; original, 1986), 66. His diary gives an excellent account of the way the marriage breakdown was received by the press. The text of the news release is found in Trudeau, Beyond Reason, 193. Interview with Patrick Gossage, May 2009.
21. Gossage, Close to the Charisma, 64–69; Globe and Mail, May 30, 1977.
22. Gossage, Close to the Charisma, 68; Clarkson and McCall, Magnificent Obsession, 136; and George Radwanski, Trudeau (Toronto: Macmillan, 1978), 310. I spoke with or interviewed most of Trudeau’s principal assistants at the time: Jim Coutts, Bob Murdoch, Tom Axworthy, Keith Davey, Rémi Bujold, Albert Breton, and ministers who were close to him, including André Ouellet, Donald Macdonald, Alastair Gillespie, Mitchell Sharp, and several other people who knew the situation well. The interviews with Library and Archives Canada staff also touch upon the question, although participants, including Marie-Hélène Fox, who dealt with Margaret’s correspondence, did not comment directly. All agree that Trudeau’s sang-froid was remarkable given the circumstances, and they tend to emphasize this quality rather than his difficulties.
23. The Gallup poll results, as well as the earlier poll on Turner and musings about Trudeau’s departure, are found in Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review, 30–31. Trudeau had literally thousands of letters of “sympathy” after the divorce was announced. Margaret indicates that most of the letters sent to her were extremely hostile. Interview with Margaret Trudeau, Feb. 2006. The Trudeau letters are scattered throughout TP, MG 26 020, LAC.
24. The values of Quebec-based stocks were traced in Toronto Star, April 12, 1977, and the head office departures are described in Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review 1977, 58. The Reston article and the report on the stock market drop are in New York Times, Jan. 26, 1977, and another report on stocks appeared on Jan. 28, 1976. On the tension between union and working-class support and the need to reassure a business community integrated within North America, see William Coleman, The Independence Movement in Quebec 1945–1980 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984), 225–28.
25. Montreal Gazette, Jan. 29, 1977. Description of Lévesque as “tired” and “shaken” is in Globe and Mail, Feb. 9, 1977. Quebec Chamber of Commerce speech: Le Soleil, Jan. 29, 1977.
26. Cabinet Conclusions, RG 2, PCO, Series A-5-a, vol. 6496, Dec. 9, 1976, LAC; interview with Patrick Gossage, June 2009.
27. Comment on press conference: External Affairs to several consulates and embassies, February 14, 1977, EAP, RG25, vol. 9246, file 20-CDA-9-Trudeau-USA, LAC.
28. “Remarks by the Prime Minister to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, Washington, D.C., February 22, 1977,” personal copy; New York Times, Feb. 23, 1977. A fine contemporary account of the relationship between leaders is Lawrence Martin’s The Presidents and the Prime Ministers: Washington and Ottawa Face to Face: The Myth of Bilateral Bliss 1867–1982 (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1982).
29. Le Devoir, Feb. 23, 1977.
30. New York Times, Jan. 26, 1977.
31. The Toronto Star ran its op-ed stories between Nov. 27 and Dec. 2, 1976. The letters exchanged between Lougheed and Trudeau and the views of Clark and Broadbent are described in John Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs 1976 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977), 129ff. The comment to the student from Alberta is in “Transcript of the Prime Minister’s Remarks at Question & Answer Session with Students—Oxford University, England,” Government Publications, University of Waterloo Library.
32. The Liberal MPs were identified in La Presse on Nov. 18 as Pierre De Bané, Claude Lachance, Gérard Loiselle, Claude Tessier, and Marcel Prud’homme. Trudeau’s comments from a TV interview are found in Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review 1976, 136.
33. Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review 1977, summarizes and compares the polls, 64–66, while the extensive Gallup poll is presented in The Canadian, April 8, 1977.
34. Christina McCall’s original article, “The Exotic Mindscape of Pierre Trudeau,” was published in the Jan./Feb. 1977 issue of Saturday Night and is reprinted in Stephen Clarkson, ed., My Life as a Dame: The Personal and Political in the Writings of Christina McCall (Toronto: House of Anansi, 2008), 295.
CHAPTER TWELVE: OFF THE TRACK
1. Pierre Trudeau, Memoirs (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1993). Breton strongly opposed the controls and wrote on September 5, 1975, that “a consideration of current proposals to control prices and wages makes very clear by hindsight that your Government made the right decisions in the last two years not to have wage and price controls. Had we had them, with exemptions for food, imports, land, energy, regulated prices, excise taxes, and possibly a few other things such as exports and rents on new buildings, the price picture would not be very different than it is now, and the Government would not only look bad, it would have discredited itself.” “Memorandum for the Prime Minister,” ABP, privately held. He had the grace not to remind others that he was right. Breton accepted the monetarist argument that money supply was critical to inflationary pressures in society, and he also emphasized the role of monopolists and public-sector unions, as well as the Bank of Canada’s excessive concern about the exchange rate, which if cleanly floated, would influence prices. He shared some of the views of the monetarist Milton Friedman, who attacked Trudeau in a Feb. 17, 1977, CBC TV interview. Friedman said neither big business nor trade unions were responsible for inflation. Moreover, the problem was not “to get self-control of the people.” He dismissed Trudeau’s analysis of the causes and added: “There is only one place where inflation is made in Canada and that’s Ottawa.” Transcript attached to Peter Cooke to Bob Murdoch, April 5, 1977
, TP, MG 26 020, vol. 32, file 1, LAC.
2. Canada, House of Commons Debates (25 April 1976); Globe and Mail, Sept. 15, 25, 1976. Keith Davey took credit for securing Mackasey’s earlier return to the Cabinet in 1974, arguing that the popular minister represented blue-collar Canada. Davey said that when he met with both men to discuss this possibility, Trudeau told Mackasey that he was bringing him back to “do whatever Keith asks you to do during this campaign.” Mackasey grinned and said, “Ah, come on, Pierre. You know you’re bringing me back for another reason. It’s because you like me!” He did. Keith Davey, The Rainmaker: A Passion for Politics (Toronto: Stoddart, 1986), 209.
3. See John Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs 1976 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977), 142ff., for a description of the Cabinet shuffle. Toronto Star, Sept. 15, 1976. On Richardson and by-elections, see Globe and Mail, Oct. 14, 19, 1976. On Herbert, see Montreal Gazette, Nov. 16, 1976.
4. Joyal expressed his dissent in a November 24 speech. Le Devoir, Nov. 25, 1976. The dissenters in English Canada were frequently found in the Canadian Forum, which Denis Smith, a strong critic of Trudeau, edited between 1975 and 1979.
5. Burelle became Trudeau’s French speechwriter in 1977 and has written an important account of his work. He later became a strong critic of Trudeau’s constitutional approach. Pierre Elliott Trudeau: L’Intellectuel et la Politique (Montréal: Fides, 2005). On McRoberts and Laforest, see their comments on Trudeau in Robert Bothwell, Canada and Quebec: One Country, Two Histories, rev. ed. (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1998), 235–36.
6. The 1977 polls are summarized and presented in John Saywell, ed., Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs 1977 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1979), 50ff.