A rchive Date
[ 01-10-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[Different ways of mourning PET
By MICHEL C. AUGER
Toronto Sun
September 30, 2000
MONTREAL - The most eloquent testimony to the career of Pierre Elliott Trudeau may be found in the very different ways his death will be seen in Quebec and in English Canada.
For English Canadians, he is seen as the most eminent Canadian of his time, the politician who influenced and shaped this country more than any other in the last half-century. In English Canada, there are millions of citizens - and countless politicians - who still believe in his ideas and cherish his dreams. Lots of people who refer to themselves as "Charter Canadians" and who believe the greatest accomplishment of Pierre Trudeau's career also embodies the spirit and the essential values of Canada itself.
Even in parts of the country where his policies were not well received, in the West for example, he is still considered an exceptional person to whom none of today's politicians can compare.
In Quebec, the feeling is mixed. Pierre Trudeau will always be a very controversial man. Some love him, some hate him. But no one is indifferent. But that's on a very personal level. Because the ideas he defended with such passion pretty much vanished from the political arena along with him.
Federalism, as Trudeau saw it and practised it, does not have many defenders in Quebec any more. Most Quebec federalists, with the possible exception of Prime Minister Jean Chretien, agree with ideas that were anathema to Trudeau. Like the notion of Quebec as a distinct society or the necessity for strong laws protecting the French language. From Stephane Dion to Jean Charest, modern federalists in Quebec, defend ideas Trudeau always fought.
The exception to that rule is the Charter of Rights, which was much criticized at the time of its adoption but is now an integral part of politics in Quebec as much as in the rest of the country, to the point where the Parti Quebecois government now defends and upholds it.
So today there are two very different ways of mourning Pierre Trudeau. In English Canada, people are mourning a hero, a giant - someone who defined Canada. In Quebec, people are mourning the death of a member of the family who was respected, but not always understood.
If success in politics is measured strictly by winning elections, then Pierre Trudeau was one of the most successful politicians ever in Quebec. In five elections as leader of the Liberal party, he always managed to win huge majorities in Quebec, often taking close to all the Quebec seats in the House of Commons.
The price of patriation
But if success is determined by the legacy you leave behind, Pierre Trudeau's record is not all that evident. After he left power, his party was never again able to gain a majority of seats in Quebec. This was a direct consequence of what many see as Trudeau's great achievement: patriation of the Constitution.
There was an enormous price to be paid for patriation. It had to be done over the objections of the National Assembly and no Quebec government since then - sovereignist or federalist - has ever agreed to sign on to that document.
This is the ultimate irony in the life of a man who came to politics to breach the ever widening gap between Quebec and Canada. The crowning achievement of his career was the single most important reason why this gap has widened even more. He managed to make Quebec an unwilling partner of the Canadian family.
This is not the only irony of a long career. Here was a man who told English Canada he would solve the national unity question through official bilingualism only to find Quebecers were not so much attached to the notion of federal services in two official languages than to the idea Canada was founded by two nations and two cultures, not just people speaking two languages.
Here was a man who suspended civil liberties to catch a dozen amateur terrorists, but who later thought nothing was more important than the adoption of a Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Here was a man who abandoned the promising policies of co-operative federalism of Lester Pearson to replace it with excessive centralization, once again widening the political gap between Quebec and the rest of the country.
Here was a man who was the reference and the inspiration of those who killed the Meech Lake accord, which would have given Quebec and Canada an unprecedented period of constitutional peace. Here was a man who fought against a reconciliation when what he did had caused a lot of the division.
That record cannot be forgotten by a large number of Quebecers. And this is why, today, Canada and Quebec are as far apart as ever and cannot mourn Pierre Trudeau in the exact same manner.
Michael Auger, political columnist for Le Journal de Montreal and Le Journal de Quebec, appears Fridays.
His e-mail address is: mcauger@journalmtl.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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