Vancouver Province
for October 22, 1999

Last Monday was Pierre Trudeau's 80th birthday and many have used this occasion to make an assessment. Historian Michael Bliss almost drowns in his own ecstasy as he exults in all the wonderful things he did.

Parliamentary observers like Hugh Winsor, are more guarded.

I know Mr Trudeau, but not intimately, meeting him first at a private luncheon hosted by Premier Bill Bennett back in 1977. It was a laid back sort of meeting where Trudeau spoke of his desire to patriate the Canadian Constitution. Thereafter I did see a lot of him up close at countless first ministers conferences, mostly on the constitution.

I look back at several points of the Trudeau dynasty as I try to judge him.

First there was the so-called Quebec Crisis in 1970, a crisis clearly manufactured by Trudeau to save the political bacon of Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa. It's true that the British High Commissioner had been kidnapped and a Quebec cabinet minister murdered but murder and kidnapping were already against the law. Trudeau's answer was to put the entire country under martial law and arrest a couple of hundred people, holding them incommunicado and, of course, without bail. There was no revolution in the making – these people were mostly harmless academics and minor rabble-rousers. At the expense of suspending the civil liberties of the entire country Pierre Trudeau proved his machoism.

On the economic front, Trudeau's government vastly over spent its income, and acted surprised when huge inflation resulted. Trudeau promised in the 1974 election not to bring in wage and price controls, then after the election, did just that. The huge national debt and the ongoing deficit successive governments had to fight were the result of Pierre Trudeau's profligacy.

Trudeau never did understand Canada outside Quebec and Ontario. He saw the country as an extension of the Upper Canada/Lower Canada debate and was mystified about British Columbia even though his wife came from here. (Perhaps, on reflection, that's why he was mystified.)

With regard to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, his baby, he was amply warned that the loss of power to parliament would be inevitable. All I can say is thank God the premiers (at least those other than Davis of Ontario and Hatfield of New Brunswick) held out for a "notwithstanding" clause which the federal government especially will have to start using if any vestige of authority is to remain with parliament.

There is one area where Trudeau rates high marks indeed. He has always resisted any efforts to grant special rights for Quebec. Where Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney promised all manner of constitutional exclusives for Quebec Trudeau spoke out strongly against them. He was probably what tipped the balance in many provinces against the Charlottetown Accord though in fairness, I believe it was doomed in British Columbia, Trudeau or no Trudeau.

Was he a great Prime Minister? I don't think so. A great man certainly but not a great leader. In patriating the constitution he missed a glorious opportunity to have most of the provinces onside but elected instead, at the critical conference of September 1980, to deliberately insult the provincial efforts which had, after all, been made as part of a joint federal-provincial group of ministers of which I was a part. It was his way or the highway.

He presided over a government which all but ruined the country financially.

He alienated the western provinces, especially Alberta with the National Energy Program and he refined the art of electing Liberal governments just with Ontario and Quebec votes. In doing this he alienated the rest of Canada from the Liberals, the natural governing party, a direct result of which is, for better or worse, the Reform Party of Canada and regional politics at the national level.

A remarkable man at any age. Now, at the great age of 80, after terrible tragedy and passing years, he's perhaps beginning to show his age. Any evaluation must concede this much - he dominated Canadian politics of his time and even today can draw a crowd where even those in power cannot.

Love him or hate him - there's probably not much in between – he's left an impact on this country which forever more will be remarked upon and dealt with as the "Trudeau years." For good or otherwise, Pierre Trudeau towered over his contemporaries. If nothing more, that's quite a legacy.