Pierre Elliot Trudeau Research Papers (original) (raw)

Pierre Trudeau, a forward and progressive thinking leader remains a central and influential figure in Canadian history due to his impact on Canadian identity. By introducing policies and excellent handling of the Quebec referendum and the... more

Pierre Trudeau, a forward and progressive thinking leader remains a central and influential figure in Canadian history due to his impact on Canadian identity. By introducing policies and excellent handling of the Quebec referendum and the October crisis, Trudeau's leadership not only shaped Canadian politics but also the country's rapidly evolving identity. Pierre Trudeau, as a highly influential leader in Canadian history shaped this country's identity, through policies on human rights, and multiculturalism, clearly demonstrated by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Official Languages Act and the handling of sensitive issues such as the Quebec referendum and the October Crisis, reveals how Canada's evolving identity into an inclusive, diverse, and strong stable nation

There has been a paradigm shift in global communications since the death many years ago of prominent Canadians Marshall McLuhan and Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The correspondence between the two friends, from 1968 to 1980, presciently touched... more

There has been a paradigm shift in global communications since the death many years ago of prominent Canadians Marshall McLuhan and Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The correspondence between the two friends, from 1968 to 1980, presciently touched on our contemporary wired global village and the challenges it presents to personal privacy and to freedom of expression. I examine the relationship between the two men, as laid out in their letters and, to a lesser extent, in secondary sources, highlighting matters of privacy and media. Privacy hovers over the correspondence, even when it is not the stated topic. McLuhan, who is credited with the term “global village”, discussed with Trudeau the effect of new media on people’s notions of tribe and identity and privacy. Proving a direct influence from one man to the other, in either direction, is not possible, but there is much to play with. The gap is, as McLuhan often said, “where the action is”.

In the aftermath of the 2019 election, the re-election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals brought out a significant amount of regional tension, in particular in the West. Trudeau, it was claimed, and those in the Liberal Party more generally,... more

In the aftermath of the 2019 election, the re-election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals brought out a significant amount of regional tension, in particular in the West. Trudeau, it was claimed, and those in the Liberal Party more generally, represented a central Canadian “Laurentian elite,” which did not care about Western Canadian or other regional interests. This article takes stock of this claim. To do so, it will examine the history of the “Laurentian elite” concept to clarify the idea. It argues that indeed, the Trudeau Liberals have governed as classic representatives of the “Laurentian consensus” on what is “good” for Canada, a consensus that reflects a broader philosophy on how to govern the state. This philosophy focuses on protecting key central Canadian economic interests (for example, dairy farmers and manufacturers like SNC Lavalin or Bombardier), while also supporting free trade in other sectors less important to the central Canadian economy (such as defending oil exports ...

This article examines Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's legacy in terms of fiscal federalism in Canada. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Trudeau leaned in the direction of greater fiscal decentralization as demonstrated by his decisions... more

This article examines Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's legacy in terms of fiscal federalism in Canada. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Trudeau leaned in the direction of greater fiscal decentralization as demonstrated by his decisions on social (health and post-secondary education) transfers and equalization.

Unfortunately it was rejected rather early in the process.

O objetivo desta pesquisa, inscrita no aparato teórico-metodológicode Michel Pêcheux e Eni Orlandi, é analisar o funcionamento do discurso do multiculturalismo no Canadá, onde teria emergido nos anos1960. Inscrito no discurso sociológico,... more

O objetivo desta pesquisa, inscrita no aparato teórico-metodológicode Michel Pêcheux e Eni Orlandi, é analisar o funcionamento do discurso do multiculturalismo no Canadá, onde teria emergido nos anos1960. Inscrito no discurso sociológico, o discurso do multiculturalismo emerge, assim, na ilusão de que existem fronteiras entre culturas e como se a diferença não fosse constitutiva do processo de identificação dos sujeitos. Investiga-se também, o contexto de surgimento do significante multiculturalismo e os deslocamentos e silenciamentos de sentido produzidos em relação às diferenças na tensão entre francos e anglofalantes e mostra-se que para o discurso do multiculturalismo se tornar hegemônico foi preciso produzir deslocamentos no discurso de fundação do Canadá para a construção do mito de uma terra hospitaleira para imigrantes do mundo todo.

The debate about the Indian Act and how to reconcile the elected councils and the traditionals over the past 40 years has been shaped by the sweeping intent of the White Paper of 1969, issued as Pierre Trudeau began his career as prime... more

The debate about the Indian Act and how to reconcile the elected councils and the traditionals over the past 40 years has been shaped by the sweeping intent of the White Paper of 1969, issued as Pierre Trudeau began his career as prime minister. It set out a liberal, multicultural challenge, an attempt to supersede the Indian Act by eliminating any special status for natives altogether. This galvanized the natives towards a defence of their special status, above and prior to the colonial settlers. It is a nice historical touch that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made native issues a priority, perhaps putting in place a new dispensation that has been germinating ever since.

Former President of the Media Ecology Association, Dr Phil Rose, ran for office in the 2015 Canadian federal election. This article presents an interview with Rose in the wake of his defeat. To stimulate and organize the flow of the... more

Former President of the Media Ecology Association, Dr Phil Rose, ran for
office in the 2015 Canadian federal election. This article presents an interview with Rose in the wake of his defeat. To stimulate and organize the flow of the interview, and to guide our interrogation of Rose in an exciting way that is in accord with McLuhan’s media ecological approach, this article uses probes derived from reflections on McLuhan’s life-long study of politics and the political.

A critique of Multiculturalism as it is practiced in Canada

Belfast-born Canadian novelist Brian Moore (1921-1999) wrote novels which include a complex portrait of the Québécois. His first Canadian novel, The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960), presents Montreal government officials, many of them... more

Belfast-born Canadian novelist Brian Moore (1921-1999) wrote novels which include a complex portrait of the Québécois. His first Canadian novel, The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1960), presents Montreal government officials, many of them French-speaking, as less sympathetic to the Irish immigrant protagonist. In later Canadian novels, however, Moore develops greater sympathy for the French-speaking minority. As a former Catholic within Protestant-dominated Northern Ireland, Moore includes insightful history of French-Canadian missionary work with distinct political and cultural overtones in both Black Robe (1985) and No Other Life (1997). He explores the national division of Canada during the period of violent upheaval surrounding the “October Crisis” in his neglected work, The Revolution Script (1971). Significantly, Moore’s sympathy for the Front de Libération du Québec (or FLQ) kidnappers comes at the expense of Pierre Trudeau, depicted as an actor. This contribution traces the development of Moore’s fictional portrait of the Québécois, a perspective which may be unique given both his immigrant “outsider” status and his early experiences as a minority in Belfast.

This lengthy paper examines the development of the intertwined concepts of public participation and intervenor funding in Canada between the early 1970s and 1986 in Canada. A great deal of the focus is on the legacy of the Mackenzie... more

This lengthy paper examines the development of the intertwined concepts of public participation and intervenor funding in Canada between the early 1970s and 1986 in Canada. A great deal of the focus is on the legacy of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry I (1974-1977) which was led by the visionary human rights lawyer, Thomas Berger. Berger hired the well-known NDP civil rights activist and lawyer Ian Scott as commission counsel and charged Scott with developing a coherent scheme for allocating funding to aboriginal groups that would have been affected by the project including the Dene and the Inuvialiut of the Mackenzie Valley and the Delta and the various civil society organizations, energy conservation and environmental groups that sought funding. Ultimately the funding that provided ensured the credibility of the Berger Inquiry process (as the Inquiry came to be known) and provided a durable model for identifying stakeholders worth of receiving public funds for participation in environmental assessment and inquiry processes.