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Chapter 5: Pierre Elliot Trudeau: A Canadian Scandal?
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Chapter 5 Pierre Elliot Trudeau A Canadian Scandal? Leon E. Trakman The attack on the personal morality of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, one-time flamboyant Prime Minister of Canada, is comparable only in some respects to the scandal surrounding Bill Clinton.1 Trudeau’s “crimes” were grounded in his politics and only secondarily in his lifestyle. His perceived public harm lay in his federalist loyalties and his distributive agenda. His “crimes” were an unqualified hostility toward Canadian separatists and his left-leaning economic and social agenda. The excuse for undressing him publicly was provided by moral outrage at his audacious personality and grandiloquent lifestyle. What Bill Clinton and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau had most in common, however, was the public reconstruction of their personae. An arrogant intellectual with a political mission, Trudeau was recast by the media as a moral degenerate, a fun-seeking fop who danced while Canada burned. A reluctant confessor to infidelity, Clinton was cast as a political ogre who carelessly dismantled the political and religious fabric of American society. In truth neither man was truly cast or fairly judged. Both Emperors were dressed—and undressed—as much by attributes ascribed to them as by norms possessed by them. Their clothes of degeneracy were provided, in some measure, by a libertarian right aided by media sensationalism. The moral “sins” of these two men, however, were also depicted differently . Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s personality invited caricature. Talk about his womanizing popularized more than it harmed him. Rumors about his alleged bisexuality remained just that. Trudeau’s critics concentrated on his political agenda, his vision of Canada, his social and economic reform 63 agenda, and his authoritarian style of leadership. Unlike Bill Clinton, no sexual slur or lie threatened to unseat him. Trudeau was depicted in Quebec as a traitor who surrendered his native land to English Canada. In much of English Canada, by contrast, he was seen as a social reformer who forfeited capitalism to socialism and prosperity to national debt. Behind disaffection with Pierre Elliot Trudeau was patent affront at his political ideology, fervent nationalism, socialist leanings, and dictatorial means of fulfilling his agenda. Although his sexual morality provided some ammunition for those who attacked him, it was seldom the center of their attacks. Unlike Clinton, Trudeau was more frequently criticized for his candor than his lack of it. Like Nixon, Trudeau resorted to contentious means to satisfy his ends. Unlike both, he paid a smaller price for his excesses. Behind disaffection with Bill Clinton was the depiction of him as a degenerate who had surrendered decency itself. He was condemned for his sexual transgressions and for lying about them. Attacks on Trudeau, in contrast, centered on his politics. He was eventually disempowered because of his political agenda, not his sexual proclivities. This essay is primarily about the orchestrated undressing of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the politician. The undressing of Bill Clinton, the man, is left to other essays in this volume. Comparisons are odious; but they are interesting. Focal Points Several questions linger about Pierre Elliot Trudeau the man. To what political values did he ascribe? How did he manifest or promote those values ? How similar were his values to those of Bill Clinton? These and other questions are considered in relation to two of Trudeau’s political values. First, Trudeau displayed a vehement antipathy toward separatists in Quebec who sought sovereignty-association with the rest of Canada. Second, Trudeau sought to extend the social net in Canada. In seeking to further both these values, Trudeau’s assailing wit and aggressive argument contrast starkly with Clinton’s conciliatory style. Where Clinton perfected the art of compromise as a means of political survival, Trudeau used confrontation to accomplish his idealized ends. No analysis of Trudeau would be complete without considering the relationship between his personal style and politics. Was this Quebec aris64 l e o n e . t r a k m a n [54.224.52.210] Project MUSE (2024-03-30 06:10 GMT) tocrat with socialist leanings fiscally irresponsible and the primary author of Canada’s huge national debt? Was he prone to political contradiction ? Was he an arrogant Nixon without a Watergate, or a sexual predator without a Monica? Discourse about Trudeau focuses on his political agenda, his fervent nationalism, and his passionate war of words with separatist leaders in his native Quebec. Let us start there. Trudeau’s Political Agenda Pierre Elliot Trudeau is alleged to have asserted that the state has...