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Peter Worthington: Pierre Trudeau’s damaged Canada | Full Comment | National Post
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Peter Worthington: Pierre Trudeau’s damaged Canada
Peter Worthington | 11/03/31 8:52 AM ETMore from Peter Worthington
Last week I attended a packed house debate at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) on whether or not the late Pierre Trudeau was a disaster for Canada.
To his eternal credit, my son-in-law, that nice David Frum, argued the affirmative, while John English, author of two books on Trudeau, argued the opposite.
The debate was part of a series of lively debates at the ROM, and if this one is any indication, the idea is a winner.
I wondered if the topic was chosen because of a survey conducted by the Canadian National Historical Society’s magazine The Beaver that named Trudeau the “worst Canadian” — worse, even than Clifford Olson (ninth), Paul Bernardo (fifth), or Conrad Black (tenth). An eclectic hate list.
While I share Frum’s view, it should be noted that the Canada we live in today is largely Trudeau’s doing and cannot be undone.
In no particular order, here some other points to consider.
- Trudeau unnecessarily gave Canada a written Constitution which, in effect, means if it ain’t written down, we don’t have it. There is no clause giving Canadians the “right” to own property – a right that was excluded from the earlier Bill of Rights.
- The Constitution guarantees the right of assembly — i.e. to join a union – but no right not to join a union. To have one but not the other is wrong and potentially damaging.
- Trudeau brought in our Official Languages policy that is hugely expensive and divisive. Unity based on two official languages does not work well – witness Switzerland and Belgium, where language divisions prevail.
- Multiculturalism is a Trudeau legacy that was forced on the country rather than evolving naturally. Instead of a melting pot, Canada was forced into a mosaic of oft-competing interests, making unity more difficult. Witness the push by some to have Sharia law imposed.
- Trudeau sought to gut and trivialize the Canadian military, by ever reducing the military budget while encouraging inflation. In the early days of his reign, he investigated withdrawing from NATO.
- He admired dictators like Fidel Castro and especially Mao Zedong, of whom he wrote admiringly in his book Two Innocents in Red China, where he felt the pain Mao endured for the Chinese people – whom he killed by the millions.
- When as PM he visited the Soviet Union, Trudeau said the KGB fulfilled much the same role as the RCMP – which was a canard because the RCMP is nothing like the KGB with its network of spies, informers, surveillance in every office and apartment complex, cultural center, sporting facility. Nor does the RCMP assassinate presumed enemies.
- He lied to the Canadian people when he justified his Soviet sponsored visit to Moscow in 1952 as head of a Canadian communist delegation, on grounds that he threw snowballs at Stalin’s statue – in April, when there was no snow.
- On the positive side, Trudeau’s finest hour was during the FLQ crisis when he imposed the War Measures Act which ended the crisis and soothed the country. Unmentioned was that Trudeau knew and had worked with many of the FLQ activists, and took them seriously as a threat to Canada.
National Post
Peter Worthington is the founding editor of the Toronto Sun and a regular contributor to FrumForum.com, where this originally appeared.Peter Worthington is the founding editor of the Toronto Sun and a regular contributor to FrumForum.com, where this originally appeared.
Grow up already you whiner and get over the fact that someone came up with a poll that placed PET in a position worse that Olsen... The above article AND link should be enough for you to let go of your little-girl fantasy about PET by now.
BTW -PET is also considered worse than Paul Bernardo - not just Olsen
Sheesh
When it comes to buttwadian loser PMs that have damaged the country to this day, none top Borden.
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Really? You're going to double-down and throw another sadistic child killer you compare favourably to Pierre Trudeau? Wow.
Way to keep it classy, Captain. :lol:
Really? You're going to double-down and throw another sadistic child killer you compare favourably to Pierre Trudeau? Wow.
Way to keep it classy, Captain. :lol:
Nobody dislikes Pierre Trudeau and his legacy less than I.........I am, in fact, sworn to make a pilgrimage to Ottawa for the sole purpose of visiting his statue, and peeing on its leg.
It is on my bucket list.
That said, the survey that lists him as worse than Clifford Olsen or Paul Bernardo is simply ludicrous. Pierre was many very negative things, but he was NOT a psychotic child-killer, a sexual sadist, nor a rapist, nor anything even remotely close to that.
It is on my bucket list.
That said, the survey that lists him as worse than Clifford Olsen or Paul Bernardo is simply ludicrous. Pierre was many very negative things, but he was NOT a psychotic child-killer, a sexual sadist, nor a rapist, nor anything even remotely close to that.
Sure, why not?.. Afterall, apparently the public has spoken on this so perhaps we can now rightly assume that PET's tenure was an abject failure.
By the way; how come you're not chomping at the bit to turn the knife in the sides of Kristen French's family on this... Your ever so intelligent suggestion of approaching the families of Olsen's victims and encouraging them to relive the pain was a real winner idea...
Why have you stopped there when there are so many other families that you can torture for your twisted jollies?
That might generate results that the true-believers don't appreciate
There's an actual survey? I thought this was just an overzealous hater making comparisons.
Which leg will you be peeing on? Just asking so we don't duplicate the the Urinification process.
The Nat Post published it as per the links above.... I think that the true-believers are so distraught that their beloved PET is not thought so highly of by some folks that it has caused a disconnect between what was published and what they want to believe is a fabrication
Just a simple question: How come those opposed to Justin Trudeau will yell over and over that he is just riding on his dad's name but
in the same breath tell us what an awful b-stard his dad was? If PET was so bad, how can his name be so beneficial?
Why do you find this confusing? It's simple really.
The old man was popular and did win elections to become PM. So when they say he is riding on his dads coat tails they are referring to the strengths the old man had.
Those that say he was a bastard are those who saw his weaknesses and the damage he did to this country as a PM..
Is this all rocket science to you?
Know much about politics boy?
The reason being is there are a few (thankfully only a small minority) of posters who are not exactly candidates for a Rhodes scholarship! -
Yeah, sure! Every one in the world has a father with both strengths and weaknesses!
The fact that you can't grasp that it is both utterly inane and offensive to compare any Prime Minister of Canada to child murderers...well in the immortal words of Marge Gunderson, "I just don't understand it." The loathing that squirms in your head must be horrible to wake up to.
I didn't agree with his politics, but I admired his intestinal fortitude when it came to standing up for that which he believed. ie: Just watch me.
And, like Colpy, the whole peeing on the leg is a joke.
Events have confirmed many of the fears about Harper as PM.
We have much less accountability and transparency and even conservative caucus members are angry about the dictatorial nature of the PMO.
For diehard Libs PT was just about the best thing that happened to Canada – oops – the best years and the best for Canada. So his name carries with those.
Cons have their favs as well.
Myself I predict a hung parliament but not the way I or John & Joanne Q Public want them hung
Yeah, more Leftist Spin. More Chicken Little Politics that have gained the Libs Zip.