Trudeaumania and Canada

...An overwhelming victory for Pierre-Elliott Trudeau and his brand of pan-Canadianism will only give credence to the argument that this is the time for Quebec to set out for itself...

...Trudeaumania reflected, and was built upon, evolving attitudes...

...The astonishingly bright, urbane, and young politician has managed to capture the imagination of people long nurtured on colorless, low-keyed Federal leadership...

...And he was a French-speaking Canadian whose roots went deep into the soil of la belle province...

...Pictures of the new hero blossomed forth in a Marxist May Day fashion...

...Barbs directed against Premier Daniel Johnson and the Union Na-tionale government of Quebec—the presently ascribed defenders of the bi-national view of Canada—have become commonplace...

...Canada cannot continue forever as an internally divided entity...

...Tru-deau's rise to the prime ministership, was little else than the political confirmation of the new structual reality...

...The elements of a populist appeal were clearly present, and Canadians responded accordingly as Trudeaumania took hold...

...That is why Tru-deau's demand for vision and for finding a unique place for Canada in a North American context found so much appeal...

...Before their very eyes, thanks to massive television coverage, Canadians were vicariously made a party to the selection of a Prime Minister...

...The same centralizing forces that were affecting the Federal equilibrium, however, were acting upon the national image...

...Although the interplay of forces has always been there, the 1968 election could signify the probable end to meaningful compromise...

...Pierre-Elliott Trudeau was not the pudgy, graying, hemming and hawing type of yesterday...

...Massive involvement by Ottawa in social and educational matters was enticing the gaze of most Canadians away from the Provincial realm...

...As Justice Minister, Trudeau was able to command an authoritative posiAndre E. Leblanc is a professor of history at Saint Joseph College...

...With respect to Trudeaumania and Canada, this is not necessarily the case...

...A well oiled convention machinery subsequently clinched the nomination...

...The Trudeau appeal that had up to this point remained within the pale of propriety now gushed over into an un-Canadian-like frenzy...

...Pierre-Elliot Trudeau, even though he is a French-speaking Quebecer by birth, by upbringing, and by association, is not in accord with the prevalent Provincial view that Canada is composed of two nations—one English-speaking, the other French-speaking...

...Thus, the June 25 Federal elections results will again lay bare the split personality of Canada...

...Trudeaumania, consequently, means another head-on collision between English and French Canadians over national aims...

...Following his 1965 election to Parliament, Trudeau rose meteoric-ally within the Liberal government of Lester Pearson, attaining the rank of Justice Minister in late 1967...

...As voting time approaches there seems little indication that strategy will change, despite the emitting of well-timed and well-worn platform statements that suggest a new tack...

...But what a Prime Minister...

...As Canadians entered into the habit of looking to Ottawa, local peculiarities lost their meaning...

...Many looked upon Quebec's action as another example of eroding national sovereignty that required decisive counteraction...

...This is the noxious side of the conjuncture that has to be accepted...

...What it means in terms of Canada's June 25 elections, though, is another matter...

...With the Dominion-Provincial conference out of the way, Trudeau became the fastest running non-runner at last April's Liberal party convention to select a replacement for retiring Prime Minister Lester Pearson...

...This top Cabinet position, long the preserve of efficient but normally insignificant ministers, in turn provided the ideal forum for his next coup...

...In fact, just the opposite is a distinct possibility: Trudeaumania may mean the disintegration of the Dominion of Canada...

...The path to Trudeaumania was paved...

...Trudeaumania has also found its place in terms of an emerging national consciousness...

...The proposition is extremely reasonable, but unfortunately it rejects over three centuries of French Canadian history that has forged a viable and aspiring national sentiment quite different from the national consciousness presently germinating in the remainder of Canada...

...Yet here the crux of the impending disaster resides...

...Perhaps Trudeaumania in an unsuspecting fashion has set the stage for basic renewal...

...With the disintegration of once important third parties like Social Credit, and the inability of the Progressive-Conservatives to carve out an unambiguous foothold for themselves, there is reason to believe that Trudeau and his Liberals will make impressive showings in all of English-speaking Canada (for the wrong reason) with the possible exception of the Maritimes...

...Songs such as Go, Go Trudeau sang his praise...

...All things considered, Pierre-Elliott Trudeau, the symbol of pan-Canadianism and resolute leadership, was unable to ask for a more propitious arrangement...

...French-speaking Canada, on the other hand, will ironically spurn its native son or at best accord him mixed support...

...For Trudeau, the realization of a two-nation concept would mean the turning of Quebec into a ghetto for French Canadians...

...Since that highly publicized educational meeting, everything from the issuance of a White Paper to on-the-stump rhetoric has been used to keep the constitutional issue alive...

...The constitutional issue and Tru-deau's political style remain a winning combination...

...In turn, this would mean the frustration of the ideal of Canadian nationhood...

...The exposure was also profitably used to build impressive grassroots support for the Liberal convention...

...Behind this phenomenon, of course, is Pierre-Elliott Trudeau...

...Hence when April balloting time came around, Trudeau was already assured of a healthy plurality over the several contenders...

...French-speaking Quebec has achieved a point in its national development where it can and will go it alone if necessary...

...Undeniably, Trudeaumania was symptomatic of enormous change...

...Reaction from English-speaking Canadians to what was considered an unconstitutional initiative was adversely deafening...

...He was a true "swinger...

...As the years progressed it became increasingly evident that Ottawa was becoming the new focal point...

...While this condition existed, the balance of the Canadian Federal structure was imperceptibly shifting in favor of the central government...

...The Quebec government's dispatch of a mission to attend an educational conference of French nations at Paris without first obtaining clearance from Ottawa dramatically re-opened the question of that Province's status within the Federal scheme...

...This pragmatic and remarkably simple solution to the Federal dilemma thus made Trudeau the interpreter of a new look and the country's influential mass media, in the true McLuhan sense, did the rest...

...Canada's colonial, continental and sectional backgrounds have made the cultivation of a sense of belonging quite a struggle, as Canadians continually find themselves exasperated in their attempt to achieve a cultural mosaic through the use of melting-pot techniques...

...THE TEST ON JUNE 25 Trudeaumania and Canada By Andre E. LeBlanc Montreal In the United States, where President Johnson has instructed his newly created Commission on Violence to explore whether political candidates might somehow have less direct contact with the electorate, it is commonplace for huge and enthusiastic crowds to gather in the hopes of glimpsing a man running for office...

...As a result, Trudeau has been able to draw consideration away from all other issues to the detriment of his major elective opponent, the Progressive-Conservative party...

...For decades personality-styled and populist-inspired politics had belonged to the Provincial sphere of things...

...Shortly after asking for this democratic expression of support, a constitutional crisis erupted with full force...

...Trudeau's personal imprint on these proceedings came in the form of a proposition calling for a Charter of Human Rights within the Constitution that would restrict the powers of both the Dominion and Provincial governments, thereby ending the many confrontations that had become part of Canada's daily life...

...But when such outbursts occur in Montreal, in Kitchener, or in Vancouver they are a sign that something is really in the air, and Canadian pundits have dubbed the present radical departure from the country's traditionalistic, placid politics as "Trudeaumania...

...This encounter is already expressing itself as Canada prepares for a June 25 Federal election called by Trudeau to obtain a clear mandate for his future actions...

...To preclude this predicament, he proposes a pan-Canadian Federal union where all citizens, regardless of nationality, race, or religion, are constitutionally guaranteed equal rights and opportunities...

...Hopscotching the country, ostensibly as the Dominion government's constitutionalist-at-large, Trudeau was able to maximize his public exposure by reiterating continually his headline-catching theme: Canadians suffer from a lack of vision, especially the ultra-nationalistic French Canadians who advocate separatism...

...tion at the February 1968 Dominion-Provincial Constitutional Conference, emerging as the Dominion government's most reasoned spokesman for a new Canadian constitution built upon a revitalized federalism...

...William "Bible Bill' Aberhart of Alberta, Mitchell Hepburn of Ontario, Maurice "Le Chef" Duplessis of Quebec, and other such Provincial luminaries were political kingpins who had aroused adulation...

...Under normal circumstances such eventful conditions would mean accrued benefits for a country as a whole...

...But it must not be judged too harshly...