Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 29, 2000, Winnipeg, Manitoba A10 Winn Pix Fri 2000 editorials Freedom of Trade Liberty of religion Quality of civil rights still playing his game Pierre Trudeau big idea was that French canadians could make Canada work for that they need not limit themselves to the tiny sandlot of Quebec but could play in the big leagues of Federal Power and show As much competence and intelligence and political skill As the representatives of Canadas English speaking this was an unfashionable idea in Quebec in the 1960s and the intellectuals and the chatter ing classes thought that the Bright future for the brightest Quebe cers Lay in making Quebec a Liberal society with its own identity in the Trudeau own career and the policy of his helped him prove to Quebec voters that he was right and that parti quebecois Leader Rene Levesque and the secessionists were his advocacy of French Power in Ottawa allowed him to defeat the 1980 sovereignty referee split the pm and assure the Long reign of federalism in Quebec through the 1980s and the Early but the idea that attached Quebec to Canada alienated the West from the policy of the official languages act never enjoyed popular sup port in Western the unofficial reality that party leaders must be competent in both French and English seemed to remove All Hope of High office in Canada for the unilingual majority of Western the spectacle of Quebe cers leading the Liberal the conservative party and the bloc quebecois All at the same time led the Reform in the 1997 Federal to run television ads objecting to the excessive number of Quebe cers in High because of Pierre Trudeau Quebe cers today find that French Power is a fact of life in taken utterly for find that French Power is a fact of Canadian life and the Reform advertisements expressed their resentment of the and when the newly formed Canadian Alliance had to choose a they dumped Reform founder Preston Man who could not express himself in in favour of Stockwell Day while not fluent in can express himself coherently in that Lan the West has not exactly accepted Pierre Trudeau but the logical basis of it has prevailed a party that wants to seem like a National party in Canada has to express itself in both offi Cial to that Days arrival in the House of commons As Leader of the opposition reflected the depth of Pierre Trudeau Impact on Canada and on the an Impact that has not diminished though Trudeau retired from Power 16 years Trudeau found individuals he admired in the West Otto the Law professor he put in charge of de the new Democrat he elevated to Margaret the woman he but his relationship with the Region ranged from Distant to crowds turned up at his Public appear but Manitoba rarely elected More than one Liberal for and Saskatchewan and Alberta remained Barren ground for the party As Long As he led the West had enjoyed a taste of Power in the years when John Diefenbaker was prime the Trudeau years brought bilingualism and the metric system and the National Energy policy and endless negotiations Over Patria Tion of the cons Titu an Issue of no interest to the the cumulative message seemed to be that the views of westerners simply did not matter while Pierre Trudeau the just society slogan turned out to mean Bor rowing heavily to finance rapid growth of regional development programs and social programs such As unemployment the policy was generally approved at the time and was continued by the conservative government of Brian who Fol Lowed Trudeau after the Brief John Turner that policy has left Canada with a heavy Burden of debt which the present lib eral government has started the system of chronic deficit financing is generally seen today As but it enjoyed wide approval in the country in Trudeau the strongest voice today for greater fiscal responsibility in the management of the Federal finances is that of the Canadian the West Ern based party that arose As a kind of revolt against the Canada that Pierre Trudeau the policy of heavy borrowing and monetary expansion produced rapid inflation and the wage and Price controls that were one of Pierre Trudeau a most dra Matic the Liberal party itself has already seen the error of Trudeau fiscal mainly because Preston Manning and the Reform party won widespread support for the need for a balanced in that roundabout Pierre Trudeau and his deficit financing strategy created an equal and opposite reaction Preston Manning and the demand for a balanced the country is still fighting the Battles Pierre Trudeau the regional energies he mobilized in Quebec generated a sense of regional grievance and a quest for regional Power in the that was the political dynamic he taught canadians and that is the Way canadians Are playing the game Trudeau Canada in our hearts Pierre Elliott Trudeau haunts us As his biographers Stephen Clarkson and Christina Mccall he does so because he embodies Canada in a Way no other prime with the possible exceptions of sir John Macdonald and sir Wilfrid and he leaves when this country is at a perilous he made us proud of ourselves and our he gave us an Ideal to believe in As a people and made us see what that for Dif Ference could mean to the his passing leaves us there is no one to take his Steven who recently completed his tour As the Washington posts correspondent in believes that time has not been kind to Pierre Trudeau a he that was partly built on in an article in which he quotes a number of captains of Industry predicting the imminent end of Pearlstein claims the Amer ican has now triumphed Here and the notions of egalitarianism and liberalism that Trudeau championed and that set Canada apart from the Are the spectacular rebound of the american Economy has ended the debate on free he even Canadas political culture is As witnessed by the emergence of the Canadian Alliance and its americanized plat form of tax privatization and the end of most social he Pearlstein int the Only journalist to Dis miss the Trudeau la presses Ottawa Chantal has written about the Paradox of Pierre Trudeau and Brian the former is consistently chosen by canadians As the most important and respected prime minister of the 20th the latter is still so reviled that his party May Well not survive is Hebert Points Mulroney legacy is the one that if not Irreg he is fond of joking he has left behind three conservative parties his the Alliance and the and Hes the third Way the free Market leavened by activist government is dead in progressivity in taxation is under Continental integration is being a Strong National government is under sustained those things were All essential elements of the Trudeau vision forms Hebert and Many others like them never try to explain Trudeau popularity not Only but gets stronger with each passing the answer int hard to the Road canadians Are now on is one Treyve accepted with their if they have accepted it at but certainly not with their the 16th annual Magazine poll found the number of canadians who believe canadians and americans Are the same has dropped significantly in the last from 56 per cent to 49 per and Only 19 per cent of canadians want the two countries to no politician who be strode a nation for As Long As Pierre Trudeau did could be without negatives and he has a separatist party Rose to Power in Quebec under his he articulated great ideals like the just but he never implemented Many canadians will never forgive him for suspending civil liberties during the Fly crisis of his Patria Tion of the Constitution without que Bec leaves an open wound that could yet rup Ture the loved to hate but he was the kind of politician voters claim to Long someone who will Tell it like it Pierre Trudeau said what he thought and damned the when demonstrators swore and cursed at the train that took him and his Young sons through the he gave them the Middle Finger bleed ing hearts could go on and he said about the War measures he had personal As Well As political refusing to leave the podium in 1968 during the Jean Baptiste Day Parade in Montreal although he was being pelted by rocks and pavement pieces by some of the in the even those who loathed him have come to respect him because he was that increasingly rare Breed of politician someone who stood for few present will Ever forget his closing As he took his leave at an emotional Liberal convention in Ottawa in standing alone on the stage in a he said our dreams for this Beautiful country of ours will never Frances Russell is a Winnipeg her column appears on the two word measure of the Man at yesterday the following item moved on the Canadian press news wire urgent editors Csc news reports that former prime minister Pierre Trudeau has up is a Toronto Over the Days and weeks millions More words will be added to the millions already written about Trudeau and his remarkable most of them will serve a they will remind us of hundreds no exaggeration of things he said and did that affected us for Good or ill most of our adult lives in my All of my adult life i was 18 when Trudeau burst on the National but for All the perhaps the True measure of Trudeau Impact on Canada and canadians is that they for the most As the up Flash three words Trudeau has died All that Are required to Stop us in our to set our minds racing in Likely for what we today Call bringing things to an a final that few words would be needed to take Trudeau measure was already Clear a few weeks ago when we first heard on radio a different Flash Trudeau was on his death that news alone set off an unimaginably vast dialogue that no doubt reached around the i cannot imagine what the three words yesterday or even a simpler two word summary Trudeau but it will be immense and i have few personal reminiscences of i covered a few of his speech one in the gunfighter and i met him Only i was in a receiving line during the Canada games in i Shook his hand but do not recall saying the reporter next to a spirited woman from noted that Trudeau was wearing an official games Blazer and thought she would have some love your she he might have i admired her for her it reminded me that i was in the presence of not a which was something we frequently which is Why i think we and often were irritated by Trudeau when his failings were when his policies didst a lot of our i were no one could have lived Long on the Pedestal we set Trudeau at i think that was the source of my own often ambivalent feeling about when he Pirouette behind the Queen my favorite image of him i believed he somehow transcended the Ordinary world in which the rest of us when the introduction of wage and Price for it was More than a Mere failure of it was like a failure of a profound when he finally i was i Felt it was time for him to but even though i Felt it was time for him to i knew i would miss As much As he sometimes enraged More often than not he commanded my Atten Tion and i wanted him gone not because he had ceased to be endlessly but because As Long As he chances were that the tired government he led would hold onto office and continue to suffocate the country under mountains of debt and experiments in social Engineer i believe in obituaries and i believe in them because a human Story cannot be told until it is so Long person there exists the potential for a great Triumph or a fall or what Ive written Here is not a Eulogy certainly it is not an i leave that to persons with greater knowledge and Talent than i can i wish Only to leave you with this the measure of Trudeau a greatness is Clear from the Impact caused by two words Trudeau Gerald flood is a free press editorial his column usually appears on Winnipeg free press Winnup Esiee press est 1872 Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 in vouhnoz82 2000 Winnipeg free a division of newspapers division of Thomson Canada limited published seven Days a week at 1355mountaln Manitoba r2x pm 6977000 a member up Manitoba press Council Rudy email Nicholas Hirst Flynn editor ;