Word: trudeau
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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CANADA'S Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, flashed across the political firmament four years ago as the most magnetic leader since John F. Kennedy. He was cool, intellectual, aloof and telegenic-and, said his critics, arrogant. Last week it was a considerably humbled Trudeau who appeared at a nationally televised press conference. In a direct and stinging rebuke, Canadian voters had stripped his Liberal government of its majority in the 264-seat House of Commons and, as Trudeau put it, "conveyed to me and my colleagues that there have been failures." Now he announced his intention of calling Parliament...
Mess. That sudden change in Trudeau's political fortunes was caused by the strangest election result that Canadians had ever imposed upon themselves. At week's end, with several closely contested constituencies scheduled to undergo recounts, the two largest parties seemed, incredibly, to be tied with 109 seats each. The Progressive Conservatives, led by Robert Stanfield, had won nearly all their seats in English-speaking provinces; Trudeau's Liberals were elected principally in French-speaking Quebec. The rest were divided among the socialist-oriented New Democratic Party (30), the right-wing populist Social Credit Party...
...mess could fairly be blamed on Trudeau, who had somehow managed to turn voters off in the course of an eight-week campaign of seemingly calculated indifference. He picked as his theme "the integrity of Canada," a precise but passionless way of declaring his opposition to Quebec separatism, and as his slogan "the land is strong," which is practically meaningless. He could not, it seemed, communicate any sense of concern over Canada's appallingly high unemployment rate of 7.1 %. As a Cabinet colleague cynically put it, Trudeau was simply unable to "bleed a little" for the electorate...
Such gaffes might have been politically disastrous for Trudeau if he were not pitted against the Canadian whom many would vote most difficult to elect. Robert Stanfield, 58, an able former Premier of Nova Scotia, is eminently qualified for the job of Prime Minister, in every particular except political flair. He seems to be everybody's fumbling, bumbling "Uncle Bob," a gray personality whose speeches seldom arouse the electorate. A traveling rock band and miniskirted "Stanfield Girls" have been recruited to add color to his campaign -but they are not enough...
Quebec Nationalism. Trudeau proclaims that the major issue is "the integrity of Canada"-meaning a continued place in the Confederation for Quebec, where the separatist Parti Québecois won 23.06% of the vote in provincial elections two years ago (but decisively lost two by-elections earlier this month). Trudeau has responded to Quebec nationalism by trying to assure French-Canadians of a larger role in Canada and particularly in government -which has cost him votes among English-Canadians. They have complained about French signs on post offices, and the use of their taxes to alleviate unemployment in Quebec, which...