Six national Elections in eleven years sounds suspiciously like government by referendum. When Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Canada’s first premier to lie about his age) shouted Fini! to his one-hour term as Liberal Parliamentary leader, throwing Canada into another election, he did not extend the seeming instability in the nation’s government: he threw down the gauntlet in a duel whose longer-range results may determine whether Canada remains a single nation. His putative opponent is the Tories’ colorless Robert Stanfield, but his real antagonist is the dynamic leader of Quebec separatists, René Levesque. Trudeau’s election as leader at the Liberals’ tumultuous April convention derived not from his political experience—which is exiguous—nor his record as a French leftist intellectual, but rather from a visceral feeling among delegates from across the country that only a magnetic Frenchman with a commitment to strong central government can halt the separatist upsurge. This was probably the correct analysis, but the preservation of a united Canada may be at the cost of a leftward jolt, accompanied by currency devaluation and economic recession.
L’affaire de Gaulle put separatism on page one to stay. Until de Gaulle lent the movement his enormous prestige, separatist advocates were mostly students and an ultra-left fringe. He reminded French Canadians of their remarkable history, and of their second-class status. Overnight, separatism became respectable among the bourgeoisie. Since no French Revolution would be complete without an Estates General it was hastily created. The assemblage astonished English Canada with its virulence: the tiny pro-Canadian minority was swamped by 1789-style enthusiasm, as the delegates voted not only for secession, but annexation of Labrador and Baffin Island.
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