A rchive Date
[ 01-10-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[A passion for politics
Did the finance minister hide his mounting surplus from the big spenders?
RICK GIBBONS -- Ottawa Sun
October 1, 2000
The tributes will continue to pour in for many days in the wake of the death of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
And amidst that crush of memories and river of tears, there will be all manner of suggestions on how to permanently memorialize the legacy of a man who cast a giant shadow across this country for a generation.
There will be calls to rename airports and hospitals, no doubt, perhaps even a holiday in memory of a man widely regarded as the greatest Canadian of the 20th century.
But the most fitting tribute would be if this period of intense public reflection on Trudeau's legacy serves simply to re-instill in today's leaders, and in the minds of all Canadians, the true notion of public service in a political world driven all too often by money and self interest.
Trudeau was the reluctant politician, the dashing millionaire who didn't really give a fuddle duddle for the old way of doing politics. He didn't enter the fray for self gain or for personal gratification. He was driven instead by an intense vision for Canada, a united Canada, a "just society," and he had an uncanny knack to catch millions of Canadians up in that dream.
And while, during a long and controversial career, he evoked strong reactions both for and against his vision, you never doubted his passion or his conviction.
He always left the impression he would prefer a log cabin in the bush or a canoe in the waters of a northern lake over the chauffeured limousines or 24 Sussex.
It's a different world now. Politics has emerged in the last quarter century in this country as an industry unto itself.
How many of today's office holders have been drawn to politics by the lure of fat pensions and other perks, not to mention the age-old quest for power and all it offers? How many of today's politicians could articulate a vision that wasn't ground out by the machinery of public relations experts or sophisticated pollsters? How many of today's politicians claw their way to power by feeding off public cynicism rather than inspiring an electorate through the raw power of intellect?
Trudeau was an inspiring and intimidating force on the political stage, a rare glimpse at power when it is married to intellect and vision. Yes, he could wallow in partisanship and at times succumb to the machinations of party backroom boys who told him how to play the game. But the real memories of Trudeau that are being revisited by millions of Canadians were not the moments scripted by image shapers nor written by speech writers. They are the memories of a man who perfectly fit the times in the afterglow of Expo 67.
Historians will busy themselves with all manner of sober analysis of Trudeau's legislative record. But ordinary Canadians are remembering a man who threw caution to the wind, who surprised, enthralled, angered and, most of all, inspired them to make their own imprint on their country and the world.
Who was this man who yearned for "a just society," who shook the country with his cold-blooded "just watch me" warning in the face of FLQ terrorism, who chided the Americans and provoked Richard Nixon to call him an "asshole," who mocked the media for being "trained seals," who scoffed at the "bleeding hearts" and once arrogantly dismissed backbench MPs as "nobodies" 50 feet from Parliament Hill? He was a leader who dared court both Castro and Red China, who lied about wage and price controls yet who never, ever, wavered from his passionate belief in a united Canada in an era when, at times, the country seemed to be pulling itself apart.
History will remember Trudeau for the enduring legacy defined by a Constitution and a Charter of Rights, for imposing the War Measures Act and for introducing massive deficits to governance. But popular history will remember Trudeau as the wanderer in buckskins, the dashing playboy who squired famous beautiful women, the arrogant autocrat, the devoted father, the most public man in Canada yet at times the loneliest, the caped crusader, the rugged outdoorsman.
And most of all, we'll remember him as the intellectual with the rare capacity to make us think ... and dream.
Rick can be e-mailed at rgibbons@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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