PROFILE: PIERRE ELLIOTT TRUDEAU CANADIANS HAVE ELECTED A “NEW WAVE” PRIME MINISTER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31726, 9 July 1968, Page 12

PROFILE: PIERRE ELLIOTT TRUDEAU CANADIANS HAVE ELECTED A “NEW WAVE” PRIME MINISTER

(Bp

SIMON KAVANAUGH)

While the world’s politicians peer anxiously from their platform to see which section of the audience is about to throw more bricks, a revolutionary has crept up behind them and taken a seat on the stage. Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 48, may not have a brick in his pocket, but he is as out of place among the conformists as a student in the French Cabinet, and as irreverent as a court jester.

He is, however, Canada’s new Prime Minister, and it is a measure of his impact that he is frequently referred to as President A sizeable number of Canadians—including, perhaps, many who voted for him—cannot yet grasp what has happened. Trudeau, five years ago, was not even a political unknown —the tag often used for quiescent backbenchers. He was a sharp-suited lawyer with a smart clientele, a wealthy intellectual who amused himself with radicalism and such obscurities as the ethics of trade unionism and labour law reform. Old Breed Rejected Today, as if from some giant aerosol, “Trudeaumania” has been sprayed all over the face of Canada, and Canadians are finding it invigorating. By electing a non-politi-clan they have passed judgment on the old breed, given warning to the new and expressed their feelings about the straight-laced, stuffy image imposed upon them for a century from the heights of Ottawa. For Trudeau is a nonpolitician, at least by conventional standards. As was once said of Oswald Mosley, he could easily have become Prime Minister as a Conservative, Liberal or Socialist. An eclectic, a man for all seasons, Trudeau performed

the near-impossible feat of fighting an election without a programme, committing himself to being non-commit-tal and, at one stage of the campaign for leadership, going off on holiday. A New Look What does he stand for? Chiefly, fresh air. He avoids specifics, but wants to take a new look at Canada’s relationships with the United States, at its farming policies, at its industrial expansion programme, at its social welfare schemes. More of a social scientist than an economist, he believes that a

just society will become a prosperous one, and that the converse is seldom true.

Trudeau is full of contradictions: born rich, he is a democratic socialist; fiercely proud of being French-Cana-dian, he is the bitterest opponent of French-Canadian separatism; and ardent upholder of provincial rights and local legislation, he champions Federalism and a stronger national government. In a book, Trudeau wrote: “The only constant factor in my life has been opposition to accepted opinions. Had I applied this to the stock market, I might have made a fortune. I chose to apply it to politics and it led me to power—a result I had not really desired, or even expected.” Derided By Opponents The constant factor among opponents is fury. Trudeau, they rumble, is a dilettante, a pop idol, a playboy. He is, indeed, a little of all three. But he is also Prime Minister. So what happened in those five years? Firstly, Trudeau, through a magazine he owned, had been predicting the break-up of the existing parties for some time. The Conservatives, he said, were too conservative, the Liberals too liberal. Attacking graft (the Government was soon to be rocked by a series of scandals) and the Victorian shibboleths of the Right, he quickly built up a fervent following among the intellectual Left. Then Trudeau went for the Separatists of Quebec—noisy, embarrassing French extremists who pose the prickliest problem in Canadian politics. They were, he said, totally irresponsible, living in a dream world. They were out-of-date and out of place in a modern Canada. They were also economically stupid. Now the Right sat up; none of their leaders had dared attack secession in such terms—and in perfect French too. Tempting Offers The Liberal government, clinging to office with the aimost-traditional hair'sbreadth majority, was disintegrating under pressure from all directions. In 1965 the Liberals approached Trudeau with tempting offers of Cabinet rank if he would join them. Instead he invited them to join him. When Pearson failed yet again to get a working majority, they had little choice left Trudeau became Justice Minister with virtual carte blanche to reform the Party. Within a year the Liberals were unrecognisable —either from their faces or their sentiments.

Trudeau jumped into the arena with both feet tackling such issues as abortion and divorce and pushing through legislation while the opposition were still gathering their forces. Once again he had shown himself master of the surprise tactic—for who would have expected such priorities from a Jesuiteducated Catholic? But his shocking—and unanswerable —slogan was; “The State has no business in the nation's bedrooms.” Kennedy-like Book As the Liberal Party’s fortunes' declined, Trudeau s standing increased. He used every trick in the book to project himself and the book might have been written by the Kennedys. On television he charmed, joked and clowned his way through interviews, excluding a kind of Rex Harrison-type sexiness (“even his bald patch got him votes” said a commentator) and breezed into stuffy party conferences saying: “Right. I’ve got tw’enty-five minutes; who’s going to do the talking?” Invariably, he did. When the Liberals appointed him Prime Minister, many felt, or hoped, he w’ould quieten down. “Will you now get rid of your Mercedes?" asked a respectful interviewer. “Which one—the car or the girl?” was the reply. He sacked Ministers, implied that the traditional Canadian peace-keeping role in the U.N., and even N.A.T.0., would be scrapped, hinted that he had tough measures up his sleeve for the troublesome Quebecoise. Bands, Girls, Dancing With that, he went to the country. Asked about a policy, he repeated he was “in opposition to accepted opinions.” While opponents talked to quarter-filled halls. Trudeau and his men were drawing vast crowds with brass bands, pretty girls and dancing in the streets. For the voters the choice was stale bread or jolly circuses—and they chose the circus. One incident made him almost a national hero. French separatists on the eve of the poll tried to break up a meeting at which he was principal speaker. Hecklers began to throw bottles, stones and bricks. The civic and partv dignitaries scrambled under tables or fled the platform—but Trudeau smiled through it all. shouting goodhumoured defiance. When police broke up the mob, Trudeau was still there—and television cameras recorded for all the nation the undignified re-entry of the Establishment from their hiding places. As one Canadian said: “If he gets in, things will never be the same again.” And most Canadians, it seems, are looking forward to that