Pierre Elliot Trudeau Love or Hated Him ?

[Liberalman]

Trudeau put the Canadian people first.

Another good example was the fifty percent Canadian content rule on radio.

In those days Canadian musicians had to make it in America before they could make it big in this country.

A lot of radio stations complained and the Conservatives tried to preasure the Liberal government to back down but Trudeau stood firm and the Canadian music industry was born.

In those days less than ten percent of the music played on the radio was Canadian so in the beginning you heard a lot of songs repeated in a day.

Soon lots of Canadian rock bands went from their garage to the recording studios and big stars were born.

Unfortunatly for the Conservatives they just don’t understand that America is our neighbor America is not our nation.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

A visionary or an hallucinary?

One man's visionary is another man's hallucinary, JLM.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Depends if you don't like the country the way it is.

Quite so, Kreskin. And I like it just fine (even with Harper in office). Certainly it is a much better place than 50 years ago (in spite of the carping and whining by the conservatives).

 

[AnnaG]

Everybody in the world is aware of the economy. Martin did do a stellar job of gettng our nose above water, albeit we were still in it up to our necks and now it's back up to our chin.

Yeah, he did really well with the economy when the world's economy was good. What a hero. He paid off some debt and balanced the budget ..... at the expense of students, seniors, etc. and did so well, he gave some really nice presents (at our expense) to his rich buddies. Yep, he was a real hero.

 

[AnnaG]

TD economists: Canada's high government deficits and debt hurt '90s economy Although Canada's economic performance has been encouraging lately, the '90s have been the worst decade post the World War II period, say TD economists in their latest report, Better Prospects for Canada's Economy in the Next Decade.

• Real GDP only rose by 2.1% each year in the 1990s.
• Canada's economic growth was dampened by cutbacks in government spending, high real interest rates and a rising tax burden on consumers.
• Good news: the restructuring of the 1990s has prepared for a better economic performance in the next decade.
• With commodity prices recovering from last year's slump, corporate profits, as a share of GDP, have risen to the highest levels since the 1980s.
• Providing a lift to business investment are: sharp improvement in corporate profitability, a surge in Y2K-related spending and rising industrial capacity utilization rates.
• Exports are close to record highs because of a booming U.S. economy and the low value of the Canadian dollar.

- Canadian Business Stats

 

[Mowich]

Yeah, he did really well with the economy when the world's economy was good. What a hero. He paid off some debt and balanced the budget ..... at the expense of students, seniors, etc. and did so well, he gave some really nice presents (at our expense) to his rich buddies. Yep, he was a real hero.

"at the expense of students, seniors, etc." I might add, AnnaG, the military. Under both Chretien and Martin, the preparedness of our Armed Forces fell to a real low. No helicopters - that didn't fall out of the sky; no transport planes big enough to take our troops to Afghanistan - necessitating that wonderful photo of of our troops landing in a borrowed US plane. The list goes on but my point is made.

 

[gerryh]

"at the expense of students, seniors, etc." I might add, AnnaG, the military. Under both Chretien and Martin, the preparedness of our Armed Forces fell to a real low. No helicopters - that didn't fall out of the sky; no transport planes big enough to take our troops to Afghanistan - necessitating that wonderful photo of of our troops landing in a borrowed US plane. The list goes on but my point is made.

Oh horror upon horror....... it became more difficult to kill people across the ocean..... our armed forces did manage to figure out a way to do it though....didn't they.

 

[Kreskin]

YouTube - Trudeau on Special Status for Quebec

Budgets and programs..that's all flavor of the day. You can always print more money overnight. You can't create a new society overnight. The above clip is what made him stand out from the rest. Everyone wanted Quebec to have special status just to sweep it under the rug. Mulroney wanted it. Few politicians had the backbone to stand up for what is right.

 

[FiveParadox]

Fabulous clip, Kreskin.

 

[Mowich]

Oh horror upon horror....... it became more difficult to kill people across the ocean..... our armed forces did manage to figure out a way to do it though....didn't they.

Canadians are extremely inventive and imaginative people. If a way can be found to do something, you can be sure a Canadian will find it.

 

[Bar Sinister]

Neither, but I did find him immensely interesting and had great respect for his intellect. His opposition to the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords were probably critical in the defeat of those two sell outs. One thing about Trudeau was that he was never dull. Fuddle duddle if you think he was.

 

[Cliffy]

Neither, but I did find him immensely interesting and had great respect for his intellect. His opposition to the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords were probably critical in the defeat of those two sell outs. One thing about Trudeau was that he was never dull. Fuddle duddle if you think he was.

Trudeau was colourful and he made politics interesting. Agree or not with his ideas, but politics in Canada since Trudeau has been dull as only bean counters can make it. I would like to see the stats comparing the percentage of people voting back then compared to today, and I'm sure we would all be surprised. I think people have lost a lot of interest precisely because our politics are dull and boring. And I think it is that way by design.

 

[JLM]

Trudeau was colourful and he made politics interesting. Agree or not with his ideas, but politics in Canada since Trudeau has been dull as only bean counters can make it. I would like to see the stats comparing the percentage of people voting back then compared to today, and I'm sure we would all be surprised. I think people have lost a lot of interest precisely because our politics are dull and boring. And I think it is that way by design.

You got that right, Cliff- but don't you find that people get dull and boring when they are being paid too much money? They lose a sense of connectivity with the common folk. Of course even though Trudeau may not have been dull and boring I'm not convinced he had connectivity with the common folk. I doubt if he visited Nakusp more than twice. :lol:

 

[petros]

You got that right, Cliff- but don't you find that people get dull and boring when they are being paid too much money? They lose a sense of connectivity with the common folk. Of course even though Trudeau may not have been dull and boring I'm not convinced he had connectivity with the common folk. I doubt if he visited Nakusp more than twice. :lol:

There has been a shift in the past few years. We've shaken off the crown backed yahoos then went through a grassroots type of govt and now we have nothing but career politicians who don't come from the public but out of the business realm without regard for the concerns of public interest but merely for exploitation of the public's resources and labour.

You now get half your worth for you labour and the debt burden is horrific and kills off any idea that you have freedom.

 

[JLM]

There has been a shift in the past few years. We've shaken off the crown backed yahoos then went through a grassroots type of govt and now we have nothing but career politicians who don't come from the public but out of the business realm without regard for the concerns of public interest but merely for exploitation of the public's resources and labour.

You now get half your worth for you labour and the debt burden is horrific and kills off any idea that you have freedom.

I think you are onto something there, Pete

 

[petros]

I think you are onto something there, Pete

So which direction do we go next?

 

[JLM]

So which direction do we go next?

Reduce size of government?

 

[countryboy]

Reduce size of government?

Now you're on to something.

I didn't hate or love Trudeau. I don't think he had "his feet on the ground" when it came to understanding everyday people. I think he had a vision in his head though, which is more than I can say for most of the politicians these days.

He always left me with the impression that he was "above" normal people and didn't much give a damn about what the "underlings" really cared about. When he unified the armed forces as a money-saving move, I began to question if he was really all there. Giving the finger to the farmers wasn't a very impressive move either. As time went on, I began to really dislike his implementation style...and ended up being an active 'non-supporter' of him.

But, I think he fought for what he thought was best for Canada and I have to give him credit for that. Like I said, at least he had some vision...

 

[petros]

Reduce size of government?

How do you define government? Reduce under the one meaning as in the body and hand more public sector jobs over to no bid cost plus private contractor that pay far less thus lowering standard of living? That's what we have now. Or the definition of government controlling you rather than you controlling govt?

 

[JLM]

How do you define government? Reduce under the one meaning as in the body and hand more public sector jobs over to no bid cost plus private contractor that pay far less thus lowering standard of living? That's what we have now. Or the definition of government controlling you rather than you controlling govt?

I don't have all the answers hence I worded it as a question. But I think it wouldn't do much harm if we reduced most aspects, cut the number of constituencies in half and put the publc services jobs out for bid in the private sector. Basically all we want from Gov't is enacting and enforcing legislation and keeping a few employees as "watchdogs".