A rchive Date
[ 07-06-2005 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[Tenacity, reason the hallmarks of Trudeau
By TOM BRODBECK - Winnipeg Sun
October 1, 2000
How could you not celebrate a man who had the guts and conviction to walk into a room of stuffy Liberal cabinet ministers in the late 1960s and propose the decriminalization of homosexuality - and succeed? This, at a time when otherwise reasonable people had trouble telling the difference between a criminal act and the private sexual orientation of an individual.
This was the tenacity and reason of Pierre Elliot Trudeau that captured the attention and imagination of Canadians in the 1960s and 1970s. Trudeau passed away Thursday, closing the final chapter on easily the most colourful, controversial and progressive life of any Canadian prime minister.
Trudeau was far from perfect. He did as much damage to the country as he did to nurture it. His intellect was razor sharp, but he sometimes wavered and was guilty of his share of contradictions in a self-admitted schizophrenic approach to politics.
He spent lavishly, pushing renown economist John Maynard Keynes' deficit financing theories over the wall and plunging Canada into a level of debt that has had harmful and long-lasting effects. Still, it is difficult to ignore the grandeur of a politician so dedicated to Canada that he was prepared to devote his life to public office in the name of ideas.
And it was ideas that Trudeau was all about - whether you agreed with them or not. He had them, he debated them, he defended them and he executed them. This was a man of imagination and deliberation unmatched by any modern-day Canadian politician.
He towered over the status quo; he challenged it, taunted it and ultimately transformed it into something he thought more palatable and useful for nation building. Official bilingualism, the ill-fated National Energy Program, wage and price controls, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms - the list is long.
It was almost a mistake that Trudeau entered politics, a man whom, at 40, was still living with his mother. He viewed public life more as an experiment than a career. He often saw himself as an actor playing a part on the national stage - that it wasn't really him, but someone else.
And it's against that backdrop, perhaps, that he had the mindset, the freedom and the will to forge ahead with daring policies few today would even contemplate. Trudeau times were exciting times in Canadian politics. He was dashing, bold, and daring and yet insufferable and contemptible.
Imagine a politician today shouting down a crowd with a megaphone, telling them he won't talk to them if they keep throwing wheat at him and insulting him with offensive placards. Trudeau debated public policy openly, he didn't cow and evade issues like today's brand of politician.
When a reporter asked him a question, he answered it - a far cry from modern-day office holders, many of whom simply regurgitate what their handlers tell them to say. Trudeau was a true Canadian, from his near-perfect J-stroke in a canoe and his love for the outdoors to his remarkable ambassadorship abroad.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau was, at the very least, one of Canada's greatest statesmen, a man whose mark on the country's cultural and political landscape has been permanently enshrined.
Tom Brodbeck is the Winnipeg Sun's legislature reporter.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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