Canada’s Trudeaumania

Last December I was sitting in the NATO cafeteria in Brussels having coffee with a European diplomat. This man,. one of the vanishing breed of highly cultured Europeans, mused upon the influence an individual often has on the fate of nations. Henry Kissinger, he remarked, shapes the foreign policy not only of the world’s most powerful country but also of all Western Europe. “And you, of course, have Trudeau.”

Yes, indeed, we . have Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who, for the past eight years, has fashioned Canada’s destiny. Although after all these years Mr. Trudeau’s innermost political thoughts still remain an enigma, the results of his stewardship are here for all to see. Undoubtedly, the spade work was done by his predecessor in office, the late Lester B. Pearson, whose career bears out my own pet theory that successful foreign ministers make disastrous prime ministers. However, it was largely thanks to Mr. Trudeau that Canada’s international role, diplomatic and military , was dismantled; that the close relationship with the United States was marred by a never-ending succession of needless irritations; that politically motivated labor unions were given a role in public affairs grossly disproportionate to their numbers; that vast sums of money have been spent on frills and misconceived social experiments, not to speak of the $1 billion being poured into the Olympic Games nobody outside Montreal really wants.

FM

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F. S. Manor

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Last December I was sitting in the NATO cafeteria in Brussels having coffee with a European diplomat. This man,. one of the vanishing breed of highly cultured Europeans, mused upon the influence an individual often has on the fate of nations. Henry Kissinger, he remarked, shapes the foreign policy not only of the world’s most powerful country but also of all Western Europe. “And you, of course, have Trudeau.”

Yes, indeed, we . have Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who, for the past eight years, has fashioned Canada’s destiny. Although after all these years Mr. Trudeau’s innermost political thoughts still remain an enigma, the results of his stewardship are here for all to see. Undoubtedly, the spade work was done by his predecessor in office, the late Lester B. Pearson, whose career bears out my own pet theory that successful foreign ministers make disastrous prime ministers. However, it was largely thanks to Mr. Trudeau that Canada’s international role, diplomatic and military , was dismantled; that the close relationship with the United States was marred by a never-ending succession of needless irritations; that politically motivated labor unions were given a role in public affairs grossly disproportionate to their numbers; that vast sums of money have been spent on frills and misconceived social experiments, not to speak of the $1 billion being poured into the Olympic Games nobody outside Montreal really wants.