LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Pierre Trudeau: Countries
built 656 days ago
Trudeau's fiery style, his gunslinger stance, and his acerbic comments made enemies in all parts of the country. His legendary battles with Rene Levesque split Quebec; his introduction of the National Energy Policy made him persona non grata in the West. His response to Western anger was to show the world "the finger."
Source:
Trudeau's sophisticated, sometimes irreverent style fascinated and captivated his country. So strong was his personality and influence that Trudeau was chosen Canada's newsmaker of the century in a Canadian Press-Broadcast News poll of editors and broadcasters in December 1999.
Source:
Proceeding in this way, by jigs and jogs, Mr. Trudeau caused his opponents untold confusion and exasperation. No sooner had they figured out how to counter one of his crusades than he had abandoned it and shot off on another. No sooner had they figured out how successfully to take a stance on one issue than he was somewhere else. It was horrible for them. It was often ... confusing for Mr. Trudeau's followers, and for the country.
Source:
[O]ne should not be surprised with the sense of loss, distress and betrayal that the constitutional package offered by Trudeau in 1981 caused in the province. Not only were most (if not all) of the traditional decentralist constitutional demands made by Quebec not met, but the package did not include a constitutional veto for Quebec, nor a recognition of its specific character, and contained a clause specifically designed to invalidate an article of the popular Charte de la langue française (Bill 101). Understandably, the Levesque government refused to accept and sign the new constitution and the province was constitutionally isolated. Trudeau, and his disciples, have always contended that Levesque, as the separatist premier of Quebec, would never have signed a deal in any case; he ... denied that the new constitution did any harm to Quebec and claimed that the Charter of Rights and Freedom would prove to be as much of benefit to Quebecers as it would be to other Canadians. In Trudeau’s mind, the Charter of Rights was to be a central piece in developing a common sense of canadianism all across the country.
Source:
Trudeau had been sympathetic to Marxist ideas in the 1940s, and in the 1950s and early 1960s, he was a supporter of the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party. During the 1950s, he was blacklisted by the United States, and prevented from entering that country because of a visit to a conference in Moscow (where he was briefly arrested for throwing a snowball at a statue of Stalin), and because he subscribed to a number of leftist publications. Trudeau later appealed the ban, and had it lifted.
Source:
Many people consider Trudeau's economic policies to be a disaster. Inflation and unemployment marred much of his term and he left the country with a large debt and an ever increasing deficit. However, it should be noted that these trends were marked in almost all western countries at the time, and the role Prime Minister Trudeau played in them is debated.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Countries