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Trudeau and our Times #1
Trudeau and Our Times Volume 1
Volume 1: The Magnificent Obsession
Winner of the Governor General’s Award
This volume examines the formative influences on Pierre Trudeau’s childhood, his knight-errant youth and early manhood, his charismatic ascent to the Liberal Party leadership, and his dramatic first decade as prime minister. It concludes with his bittersweet triumphs in fighting off the separatists in the 1980 referendum campaign and his battle with provincial premiers to patriate the Canadian constitution.
Winner of the Governor General’s Award
This volume examines the formative influences on Pierre Trudeau’s childhood, his knight-errant youth and early manhood, his charismatic ascent to the Liberal Party leadership, and his dramatic first decade as prime minister. It concludes with his bittersweet triumphs in fighting off the separatists in the 1980 referendum campaign and his battle with provincial premiers to patriate the Canadian constitution.
502 pages, Hardcover
First published August 23, 1990
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 28, 2021
This is a political hagiography of probably the most important Canadian prime minister of the Twentieth Century, and I like it as a hagiography because he is one of my political heroes. I am giving the book 4 stars because there is a lot of annoying psychological analysis, but there is also a lot of interesting meat and potatoes. The book concentrates upon Pierre Trudeau’s upbringing, personal life, and his attitudes and responses to the national unity crisis that defined his career. Other things like economic policy get short shrift, but that is okay because, although Trudeau had a master’s degree in political economy from Harvard, he wasn’t much of an economist. But he was a hell of a politician. Pierre Trudeau saved Canada.
The authors contend that he was always something of an enigma to English Canada but that French Canada knew exactly what he was. This is how he was formed. He was born in 1919 in Montreal to an English mother and a French Canadian businessman father. The father made a fortune, but he died when Trudeau was 13. Trudeau was an excellent student at Jesuit school, went to law school, where he avoided fighting in World War II, briefly worked for a law firm, and then his family money and curiosity allowed him to take a different tack. From 1944-46, he got a master’s degree in political economy at Harvard, then he studied in Paris for a year, and then he spent a year not getting a PhD at the London School of Economics under Harold Laski.
When he returned to Quebec in 1949, he found a Church-smothered society led by the Union Nationale under Maurice Duplessis. Trudeau’s family money allowed him to be the dilettante. He worked as a labor lawyer during the Asbestos Strike, he wrote for Cite Libre, and he was briefly a civil servant in Ottawa. During this time, he was a liberal, reformist Catholic, trying to get the education and medical systems and society generally out from under the control of the Church. In 1960, when the provincial Liberals gained power in Quebec, his wishes came true and he became a professor at the Universite de Montreal. At this time, he formed the political ideals that he would carry through for the rest of his life.
Once he became a professor, he directly confronted the rising Quebec separatist movement. He argued with his students. He watched as the FLQ started a bombing, robbery and murder campaign. He wrote articles supporting federalism. Upon this basis, he was elected as a federal Liberal Member of Parliament in 1965, In 1967, he became the Justice Minister, and he had two great moments in that role. He updated Canada’s laws on divorce and homosexuality, “The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.” And he had a debate with the Premier of Quebec, Daniel Johnson, who had been elected on the slogan, “Equality or Independence.” Trudeau made Johnson look like a fool while the country watched. Prime Minster Lester Pearson supported Trudeau to become next Liberal leader, and in 1968, Trudeau won the federal election. Trudeaumania.
In 1968, Trudeau brought forth the Official Languages Act, which enshrined bilingualism in the federal government, a brilliant move that led to a French-speaking federalist bureaucratic elite as a counterpoint to the one in Quebec City.
The book doesn’t say much about the October Crisis, and that is a mistake. Here’s what happened. In October, 1970, the FLQ kidnapped the British Trade Commissioner and murdered the Quebec Labor Minister Pierre Laporte. Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, rounded up 500 usual suspects, and put the army in the streets of Quebec City, Montreal, and Ottawa.
Trudeau: Well, there’s a lot of bleeding hearts around that don’t like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is go on and bleed, but it’s more important to keep law and order in this society than to worry about weak-kneed people who don’t like the looks of a soldier….
Reporter: At any cost? How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?
Trudeau: Just watch me.
It worked. The compromise was this: No violence, but Quebec separatism was accepted as a legitimate political aim that would be debated in a democratic manner. We all know the outcome now but it was an unknown then.
The book goes into quite a bit of detail about Pierre’s marriage with Margaret. The most important thing to remember is this: Don’t marry a woman who is 30 years younger than you.
The book doesn’t really have much else to say about the 70s. Trudeau alienated the media, academe and the premiers because he was arrogant. The Western premiers hated him because he wouldn’t give them anything he wouldn’t give Quebec, and he wouldn’t give Quebec anything. He regarded them as country boobs, and would occasionally say so. He was too much of a Canadian nationalist and had too much belief in the power of the state for business people, who he also looked at as money grubbers. He won two more elections, lost one, and came back in 1980 for a last shot.
When Trudeau and the Liberals came back, the referendum on Quebec independence was only six months away. The Parti Quebecois government under Rene Levesque had many strengths. For one, it accepted democratic and peaceful means. They had come to power in 1976 and built up a reputation for fair and decent government, which really helped their cause. Levesque was a powerful orator. The question the Quebec people were being asked to vote on was quite ambiguous, would they allow the Government of Quebec to enter into negotiations with the Government of Canada on a concept know as sovereignty-association?
On the other side, the leader of the provincial Liberals, Claude Ryan, was not seen as effective enough, and so the federal Liberals stepped in. They had four great strengths: they held 74 of the 75 seats in Quebec, there were 12 Quebec cabinet ministers, and they had Jean Cretien, and Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Liberal cabinet members crisscrossed the provinces, particularly Cretien, who gave speeches beside Claude Ryan, and Trudeau made the best three speeches of his political career. In the end, 60% voted Non and only 40% Oui. It was the greatest political triumph of Trudeau’s life so far. But he had made a promise to reform the constitution and now he turned to that.
It sounds ridiculous, but because Canada’s constitution was an act of the British Parliament, the authority to amend it lay with the British Parliament and the British Lords of the Privy Council. Various Canadian governments, including Trudeau’s own, had been trying to find a settlement for years, but had had no success.
The day after the referendum, the Trudeau team announced that they would be putting forward a constitutional amendment and patriation plan. It looked like this. There was to be a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an amending formula requiring the agreement of the federal government and 8/10 provinces representing 2/3 of the population for future amendments, and if the provinces did not agree, the federal government was prepared to take the issue directly to the British government. The provinces did not agree at all. They hated the Charter of Rights because it invaded their jurisdiction, and they wanted more powers for the provinces in return for patriation. The federal government then took the matter to the British government but a Canadian Supreme Court judgement that the federal government needed substantial provincial support to make changes in the constitution led the British government to be reluctant to act.
This forced more federal-provincial negotiations over the course of 1981, which the book covers in detail. The main demands the provinces wanted was the ability to opt out of federal programs, with the right to just take the money in its place. Only Ontario and New Brunswick were on side with the federal government, and Trudeau didn’t think that was enough. On the other hand, he held the threat of a direct referendum on his proposals over the provinces’ heads, because he knew the Charter of Rights was very popular.
In November, 1981, Trudeau and his team broke the deadlock by breaking Quebec away from the rest of the Anglophone premiers who objected to Trudeau’s plans. First, Levesque accepted Trudeau’s challenge for a referendum on the constitution, which Levesque felt he could win in Quebec. The seven obstructionist Anglophone premiers hated the idea because they knew they would lose the referendum in their provinces. With that, the deal making between Trudeau’s team and the Anglophone premiers began and Quebec was not included. Levesque afterwards called it “The Night of the Long Knives.” The deal agreed was this: a Charter of Rights with a notwithstanding clause that meant that, notwithstanding that the Supreme Court had ruled a law unconstitutional a Canadian federal or provincial government could implement the law for five years. After that, it would have to be renewed or it would lapse. Also, the opt-out clause was accepted, but not with any funding arrangements so if a province decided to opt out of a federal program, it would not be financially compensated. Finally, future amendments to the Constitution would need the agreement of the federal government and 7/10 provinces with 50% of the population. In 1982, the Queen came to Canada and signed The Canada Act: the Constitution was patriated.
Levesque did not sign the agreement, but his argument that Quebec and French Canada were left out was belied by the facts that both Trudeau and Cretien were French Canadians, and that the Liberal government they led held 74 of the 75 Quebec seats in the federal parliament. Rather, the federalist vision had triumphed and Levesque had been utterly defeated.
Trudeau was an eminently successful politician: he had a vision for the reform of the country and he saw his vision through, almost in its entirety. However, he had his blind sides. He didn’t understand the West. He didn’t understand business. And he had a somewhat peculiar view of international relations. The quest for Quebec separatism was not over. The consequences of all those blindsides would be thrust upon his successors. But that is true of all of us, the successful and the unsuccessful. What was special about Pierre Elliot Trudeau was that he had a consistent vision about a particular crisis in national unity, and when his vision prevailed, he saved Canada. If you like that story, read this book.
The authors contend that he was always something of an enigma to English Canada but that French Canada knew exactly what he was. This is how he was formed. He was born in 1919 in Montreal to an English mother and a French Canadian businessman father. The father made a fortune, but he died when Trudeau was 13. Trudeau was an excellent student at Jesuit school, went to law school, where he avoided fighting in World War II, briefly worked for a law firm, and then his family money and curiosity allowed him to take a different tack. From 1944-46, he got a master’s degree in political economy at Harvard, then he studied in Paris for a year, and then he spent a year not getting a PhD at the London School of Economics under Harold Laski.
When he returned to Quebec in 1949, he found a Church-smothered society led by the Union Nationale under Maurice Duplessis. Trudeau’s family money allowed him to be the dilettante. He worked as a labor lawyer during the Asbestos Strike, he wrote for Cite Libre, and he was briefly a civil servant in Ottawa. During this time, he was a liberal, reformist Catholic, trying to get the education and medical systems and society generally out from under the control of the Church. In 1960, when the provincial Liberals gained power in Quebec, his wishes came true and he became a professor at the Universite de Montreal. At this time, he formed the political ideals that he would carry through for the rest of his life.
Once he became a professor, he directly confronted the rising Quebec separatist movement. He argued with his students. He watched as the FLQ started a bombing, robbery and murder campaign. He wrote articles supporting federalism. Upon this basis, he was elected as a federal Liberal Member of Parliament in 1965, In 1967, he became the Justice Minister, and he had two great moments in that role. He updated Canada’s laws on divorce and homosexuality, “The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.” And he had a debate with the Premier of Quebec, Daniel Johnson, who had been elected on the slogan, “Equality or Independence.” Trudeau made Johnson look like a fool while the country watched. Prime Minster Lester Pearson supported Trudeau to become next Liberal leader, and in 1968, Trudeau won the federal election. Trudeaumania.
In 1968, Trudeau brought forth the Official Languages Act, which enshrined bilingualism in the federal government, a brilliant move that led to a French-speaking federalist bureaucratic elite as a counterpoint to the one in Quebec City.
The book doesn’t say much about the October Crisis, and that is a mistake. Here’s what happened. In October, 1970, the FLQ kidnapped the British Trade Commissioner and murdered the Quebec Labor Minister Pierre Laporte. Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, rounded up 500 usual suspects, and put the army in the streets of Quebec City, Montreal, and Ottawa.
Trudeau: Well, there’s a lot of bleeding hearts around that don’t like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is go on and bleed, but it’s more important to keep law and order in this society than to worry about weak-kneed people who don’t like the looks of a soldier….
Reporter: At any cost? How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?
Trudeau: Just watch me.
It worked. The compromise was this: No violence, but Quebec separatism was accepted as a legitimate political aim that would be debated in a democratic manner. We all know the outcome now but it was an unknown then.
The book goes into quite a bit of detail about Pierre’s marriage with Margaret. The most important thing to remember is this: Don’t marry a woman who is 30 years younger than you.
The book doesn’t really have much else to say about the 70s. Trudeau alienated the media, academe and the premiers because he was arrogant. The Western premiers hated him because he wouldn’t give them anything he wouldn’t give Quebec, and he wouldn’t give Quebec anything. He regarded them as country boobs, and would occasionally say so. He was too much of a Canadian nationalist and had too much belief in the power of the state for business people, who he also looked at as money grubbers. He won two more elections, lost one, and came back in 1980 for a last shot.
When Trudeau and the Liberals came back, the referendum on Quebec independence was only six months away. The Parti Quebecois government under Rene Levesque had many strengths. For one, it accepted democratic and peaceful means. They had come to power in 1976 and built up a reputation for fair and decent government, which really helped their cause. Levesque was a powerful orator. The question the Quebec people were being asked to vote on was quite ambiguous, would they allow the Government of Quebec to enter into negotiations with the Government of Canada on a concept know as sovereignty-association?
On the other side, the leader of the provincial Liberals, Claude Ryan, was not seen as effective enough, and so the federal Liberals stepped in. They had four great strengths: they held 74 of the 75 seats in Quebec, there were 12 Quebec cabinet ministers, and they had Jean Cretien, and Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Liberal cabinet members crisscrossed the provinces, particularly Cretien, who gave speeches beside Claude Ryan, and Trudeau made the best three speeches of his political career. In the end, 60% voted Non and only 40% Oui. It was the greatest political triumph of Trudeau’s life so far. But he had made a promise to reform the constitution and now he turned to that.
It sounds ridiculous, but because Canada’s constitution was an act of the British Parliament, the authority to amend it lay with the British Parliament and the British Lords of the Privy Council. Various Canadian governments, including Trudeau’s own, had been trying to find a settlement for years, but had had no success.
The day after the referendum, the Trudeau team announced that they would be putting forward a constitutional amendment and patriation plan. It looked like this. There was to be a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, an amending formula requiring the agreement of the federal government and 8/10 provinces representing 2/3 of the population for future amendments, and if the provinces did not agree, the federal government was prepared to take the issue directly to the British government. The provinces did not agree at all. They hated the Charter of Rights because it invaded their jurisdiction, and they wanted more powers for the provinces in return for patriation. The federal government then took the matter to the British government but a Canadian Supreme Court judgement that the federal government needed substantial provincial support to make changes in the constitution led the British government to be reluctant to act.
This forced more federal-provincial negotiations over the course of 1981, which the book covers in detail. The main demands the provinces wanted was the ability to opt out of federal programs, with the right to just take the money in its place. Only Ontario and New Brunswick were on side with the federal government, and Trudeau didn’t think that was enough. On the other hand, he held the threat of a direct referendum on his proposals over the provinces’ heads, because he knew the Charter of Rights was very popular.
In November, 1981, Trudeau and his team broke the deadlock by breaking Quebec away from the rest of the Anglophone premiers who objected to Trudeau’s plans. First, Levesque accepted Trudeau’s challenge for a referendum on the constitution, which Levesque felt he could win in Quebec. The seven obstructionist Anglophone premiers hated the idea because they knew they would lose the referendum in their provinces. With that, the deal making between Trudeau’s team and the Anglophone premiers began and Quebec was not included. Levesque afterwards called it “The Night of the Long Knives.” The deal agreed was this: a Charter of Rights with a notwithstanding clause that meant that, notwithstanding that the Supreme Court had ruled a law unconstitutional a Canadian federal or provincial government could implement the law for five years. After that, it would have to be renewed or it would lapse. Also, the opt-out clause was accepted, but not with any funding arrangements so if a province decided to opt out of a federal program, it would not be financially compensated. Finally, future amendments to the Constitution would need the agreement of the federal government and 7/10 provinces with 50% of the population. In 1982, the Queen came to Canada and signed The Canada Act: the Constitution was patriated.
Levesque did not sign the agreement, but his argument that Quebec and French Canada were left out was belied by the facts that both Trudeau and Cretien were French Canadians, and that the Liberal government they led held 74 of the 75 Quebec seats in the federal parliament. Rather, the federalist vision had triumphed and Levesque had been utterly defeated.
Trudeau was an eminently successful politician: he had a vision for the reform of the country and he saw his vision through, almost in its entirety. However, he had his blind sides. He didn’t understand the West. He didn’t understand business. And he had a somewhat peculiar view of international relations. The quest for Quebec separatism was not over. The consequences of all those blindsides would be thrust upon his successors. But that is true of all of us, the successful and the unsuccessful. What was special about Pierre Elliot Trudeau was that he had a consistent vision about a particular crisis in national unity, and when his vision prevailed, he saved Canada. If you like that story, read this book.
March 13, 2019
This book outlines a lot of the forces that shaped one of our Great Prime-ministers. Both this and volume II dig into the intellectual wealth of the Man and how these ideals shaped what he did as a person and a politician. It can be thick reading at times and it is worth the read. You are also cast into the political times of the 50's to the 80's that shaped him and the things that he shaped in our Canadian cultural and political landscape.
January 31, 2013
I have often heard of Pierre Trudeau, but have never taken the time to learn anything about him. This book was a fascinating look into the life of this almost mythical Canadian Prime Minister. The writing was excellent, and the subject matter very interesting (I had no idea how strange of a life Pierre Trudeau had). It was also nice to be able to brush up on some key political events that occurred during the 80s including the repatriation of the Constitution and the Quebec Referendum, two major focuses of the book. I'll be looking forward to reading volume II.
November 12, 2013
This is a good book, but it doesn't really have an ending. It just invites you to read part two, which I don't own. I will get it soon though. Four stars!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews