Analysis Of Pierre Trudeau's The Liberal Idea Of Canada

In his memoirs, published in 1993 and only two years before the second referendum in 1995, Trudeau states: "Separatism died in 1976, but its funeral was the referendum of 1980." This would come to be reflective of many Trudeau 's policies; where he would implement them based on ideology, be faced with public backlash, and then be forced to revise his policies based on pragmatism. This mixture of ideology and pragmatism is also reflected James and Robert Laxer 's, The Liberal Idea of Canada. This work was written during Pierre Trudeau 's second term in 1977, the Laxers ' focus less on Trudeau and more on the federal Liberal Party. In this sense this work is unique in the fact that it seems to be written for political scientists or political …show more content…

However, it is at this point where the traditional political narrative ends. Although Newman 's work was first published in 1968, it contains a detailed account of Trudeau 's bid for the federal Liberal leadership. While Newman attributes Trudeau 's background to becoming the Liberal leader as conventional, or as Newman terms it: "..[A] [member of the] establishment" or as a member of the country 's political and economic elite, it says that it was Trudeau 's political genius that enabled him to win the leadership. Trudeau, according to Newman, was able to portray himself as "anti-establishment" which allowed Trudeau to not only win the leadership but simultaneously reinvigorate the Liberal Party and making the party relevant with the general Canadian population. Beneath this atmosphere of euphoria, Newman 's title is telling, The Distemper of Our Times, is a reflection on the political and social anxieties that were plaguing Canadian society in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These were not just the political problems, that other sources have mentioned, but also the social upheaval that had come across the Canadian-American border through cultural osmosis, and it was Trudeau, that Newman argues, emerged in this late-1960s culture. Much like in the protests that were occurring in the United States, the protests that were occurring in Canada were in part a result of the general public 's dissatisfaction with the current political system. As a result, in Newman 's opinion, Trudeau 's decision to portray himself as a political outsider, despite his upbringing and lifestyle in the manner of one considered to be a member of the intellectual elite, was conscious one, which was designed to differentiate himself from the other Liberal leadership candidates. However, Trudeau also had the problem of the fact that Trudeau had relatively little political