Canadian Leader: Pierre Elliot Trudeau

1677 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Aboriginals in canada

Pierre Elliot Trudeau was arguably one of the most vivacious and charismatic Prime Ministers Canada has ever seen. He wore capes, dated celebrities and always wore a red rose boutonniere. He looked like a superhero, and often acted like one too. Some of the landmark occurrences in Canadian history all happened during the Trudeau era, such as patriating the constitution, creating the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the 1980 Quebec Referendum. However, it is Trudeau’s 1969 “white paper” and the Calder legal challenge which many consider to be one of his most influential contributions to Canadian history.
Trudeau himself was a liberal. One of the core beliefs of liberal ideology is that of individual rights, meaning that individuals can claim rights on behalf of themselves. Trudeau however was very much opposed to the idea of claiming special status or allowing rights to an entire group/collective entity as he outlined in The Just Society. Collective and group rights mean you claim a right on behalf of the group to which you belong to, typically in reference to cultural groups. Due to the emphasis placed on individual freedom in the liberal school of thought, Trudeau was never able to accept this idea. This also resonates in the whole Quebec dispute, where Trudeau is unable to acknowledge Quebec as having special status. It was for this reason that in 1969, he introduced his white paper. In Canadian politics, a policy paper is referred to as a “white paper”. It does not imply anything racially related as many people initially assume. This 1969 white paper proposed the abolition of the Indian Act, due to the fact that it created circumstances which resulted in Aboriginals being treated differently than others within Cana...

... middle of paper ...

...special status for Quebec and any other province, yet he was willing to recognize the historic rights of Aboriginal peoples so long as recognizing did not entail the actual granting of special status.
Like any politician, Pierre Elliot Trudeau made his mistakes. Aboriginal people also have their reasons to criticize him. The initial perception of the White Paper as that it was an attempt at assimilation. However, Trudeau’s intention was to make a statement of if you want to be as successful and happy as the rest of Canada, you will be treated like the rest of Canada. This man had a vision of a Canada that is unified despite its cultural fragmentation that seems to divide our country at times. Trudeau ushered in an era of settled land claims, self-determination and the acknowledging of First Nations rights like no other prime minister, to this day, has ever done.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Gordon Downie's Goodnight Attawapiskat

    743 Words  | 2 Pages

    Downie believed that Canada must eliminate the Indian Act that is racial discrimination. He always strongly supports Indigenous rights. In 2016, during the nationally broadcast celebration of The Tragically Hip, Downie openly avowed in front of thousands of people that Trudeau is the first prime minister who will fulfill the rights of the Aboriginal Peoples (Hipmuseum, n.d.). Hopefully, it seems to be true, because the prime minister Justin Trudeau show a positive signal toward the Indigenous societies. According to the CBC news, Trudeau declared to the First Nations leaders in Gatineau, Quebec that he drew up his plan for Indigenous people. He mentions that he would fulfill the promises he made during the election campaign, such as commencing a national public inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women, making education investments for Indigenous people. He also promises that to raise the 2% cap on funding for Indigenous peoples programs, enforcing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and abolishing all one-sided laws that enforced on Indigenous people (Mas, 2015). Within a year, the prime minister begins a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and invest $2.6 billion over four years for First Nations education (Bryden, 2016). The other promises are still

    Read More

  • Trudeau’s Imposition of the WMA in Canada

    1279 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...ill help achieve his dream rather than violence. Finally, Claude Ryan, future leader of the Liberal party, said that “the Bourassa government placed itself under the tutelage of the Trudeau government.” This shows that due to the execution of the WMA, the government of Québec and Canada worked together, despite their differences. This relationship possibly might have resulted in Trudeau making 1982 Charter of Rights and Freedoms, so the Quebecers can feel as a part of Canada. Therefore, the end result, which was positive, proves that Trudeau’s implementation of the WMA was correct.

    Read More

  • Louis St. Laurent: A Politician in Canadian History

    1448 Words  | 3 Pages

    Canadian history consists of many memorable moments, including many great leaders that helped Canada become what it is today, like the well-known Louis St. Laurent. He was born on Feb. 1st, 1882 in Compton, Quebec, and died on July 25, 1973 in Quebec City (Coucil, 13). Louis St. Laurent was raised in a mixed family, with a French - speaking father, and English - speaking Irish mother, and was fluently bilingual. He studied many years in law, where he graduated from law school, at Laval University in 1914, and had been a successful corporation lawyer (“St-Stephen, St. Laurent”). Laurent entered politics a lot later in his years, as he became older; however he still managed to have a large impact on Canada, and achieved many accomplishments. Louis St. Laurent was an extremely important, and well-respected politician, because he helped resolve the conscription crisis from 1940-1944 (,Pickersgill,14), and prevented the government and cabinet from collapsing, which would have caused the society to fall apart at the time, he was involved in the establishment of the Canada Council, which introduced support for Canadian arts, to help Canada separate from the influence of American culture (Jocelyn), and lastly he welcomed Newfoundland into confederation in 1949 (“Newfoundland History”), which was a large accomplishment because of the failures Many other politicians experienced in trying to do so before.

    Read More

  • King-Byng Affair

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest serving prime minister, is known for both the great contributions he brought to Canada and for the scandals he was involved in. The one event that makes him most famous to Canadians is the King-Byng Affair of 1926. During this event, Mackenzie King asked Lord Byng to dissolve parliament in order to force a new election as he had lost with a minority. Because King’s intentions were to regain a majority government, Byng refused out of distrust for King’s plans and King was replaced in power by the Conservatives. While William Lyon Mackenzie King’s actions were in accordance with all the laws regarding his power as Prime Minister, he acted for selfish reasons thus putting him in the wrong. Mackenzie King’s and Lord Byng’s histories will be quickly analyzed to understand their actions in the affair. Right after, King’s options and reasons for dissolving parliament will be analyzed. Thirdly, Byng’s options and reasons for refusing King’s request will be researched. Once enough evidence has been collected, the end results of this affair will be discussed and the conclusion as to whether or not King was right to go against responsible government will be made.

    Read More

  • John Diefenbaker

    998 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Diefenbaker was able to accomplish his main goal while he was in the Prime Minister’s chair. He was able to enact the Bill of rights “under which freedom of religion, of speech, of association…freedom from capricious arrest and freedom under the rule of law”. [2] He made it into an official document that would prevent the continuous abuse of the rights of many of the minority groups. He had seen the discrimination with his own eyes during his earlier years with the aboriginals, “[he] was distressed by their conditions, the unbelievable poverty and the injustice done them.”[3]

    Read More

  • FLQ Crisis

    1029 Words  | 3 Pages

    An angry Trudeau replied: "There's a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don't like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is go on and bleed." "How far are you going to go?" Ralfe insisted."Just watch me!" said Trudeau. And Canadians across the country watched as, at 3 o'clock in the morning, Friday, October 16, Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act. The Press Gallery was packed. Trudeau was careful, cold, analytic - and brilliant. The invocation of the War Measures Act meant the suspension of traditional Canadian civil l...

    Read More

  • Pierre Elliot Trudeau

    1809 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many Francophones believed that they were being discriminated and treated unfairly due to the British North American Act which failed to recognize the unique nature of the province in its list of provisions. Trudeau, with the aid of several colleagues, fought the imminent wave of social chaos in Quebec with anti-clerical and communist visions he obtained while in his adolescent years. However, as the nationalist movement gained momentum against the Provincial government, Trudeau came to the startling realization that Provincial autonomy would not solidify Quebec's future in the country (he believed that separatism would soon follow) and unless Duplessis could successfully negotiate (on the issue of a constitution) with the rest of Canada, the prospect of self-sovereignty for Quebec would transpire. His first essay (Quebec and the Constitutional Problem) explores

    Read More

  • Limitations of the Canadian Prime Minister

    1053 Words  | 3 Pages

    Canada’s parliamentary system is designed to preclude the formation of absolute power. Critics and followers of Canadian politics argue that the Prime Minister of Canada stands alone from the rest of the government. The powers vested in the prime minister, along with the persistent media attention given to the position, reinforce the Prime Minister of Canada’s superior role both in the House of Commons and in the public. The result has led to concerns regarding the power of the prime minister. Hugh Mellon argues that the prime minister of Canada is indeed too powerful. Mellon refers to the prime minister’s control over Canada a prime-ministerial government, where the prime minister encounters few constraints on the usage of his powers. Contrary to Mellon’s view, Paul Barker disagrees with the idea of a prime-ministerial government in Canada. Both perspectives bring up solid points, but the idea of a prime-ministerial government leading to too much power in the hands of the prime minister is an exaggeration. Canada is a country that is too large and complex to be dominated by a single individual. The reality is, the Prime Minister of Canada has limitations from several venues. The Canadian Prime Minister is restricted internally by his other ministers, externally by the other levels of government, the media and globalization.

    Read More

  • Greatest Canadian: Pierre Trudeau

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    Pierre Trudeau is the greatest Canadian of the twentieth century due to the fact that he declared Canada’s independence from Great Britain, he abolished the death penalty, and he created the Official Languages Act, making our nation entirely bilingual.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Pierre Trudeau's The Unjust Society

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    Harold Cardinal made a bold statement in his book, The Unjust Society, in 1969 about the history of Canada’s relationship with Aboriginal peoples. His entire book is, in fact, a jab at Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s idea of ‘the just society’. Pierre Elliott Trudeau made great assumptions about First Nations people by declaring that Aboriginal people should be happy about no longer being described as Indian. His goal was to rid Canada of Indians by assimilating them into the Canadian framework. Considered by many as a progressive policy, Trudeau’s white paper demonstrates just how accurate the following statement made by Harold Cardinal at the beginning of his book is : “The history of Canada’s Indians is a shameful chronicle of the white man’s disinterest,

    Read More

  • Quebec

    2106 Words  | 5 Pages

    ... A successful strategy in the accommodation of national minorities within a liberal democracy could be founded upon mutual trust, recognition and sound financial arrangements. However, a certain degree of tension between central and regional institutions may remain as a constant threat in this complex relationship since they entertain opposing aims. The federal governments determination to protect its territorial integrity, and its will to foster a single national identity among its citizens clashes with Quebec’s wish to be recognized as a separate nation and decide upon its political destiny and to foster its distinct identity (Guibernau pg.72). Moreover, if the ROC and the federal government can come to an agreement on terms that satisfy the majority and an identity that encompasses the heart of a country; Canada will continue to exist with or without Quebec.

    Read More

  • Canada, A Rising Middle Power

    1642 Words  | 4 Pages

    Pearson, Lester B. Mike; the Memoirs of the Right Honourable Lester B. Pearson. Vol. 1. Toronto:

    Read More

  • The American Influence in Canadian Popular Culture

    1937 Words  | 4 Pages

    Thompson, John Herd, and Mark Paul Richard. "Canadian History in North American Context." In Canadian studies in the new millennium. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008. 37-64.

    Read More

  • Joseph Jacques Jean Chretien: Canadian Prime Minister

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Quebec referendum of 1995, the federalist forces were defeated as many voters rejected the idea of separatism and the Clarity Act was enacted, which set out the government rules for negotiating sovereignty with Quebec (Hillmer & Azzi). Therefore, Chretien's role in the campaign was badly criticized (Bothwell).On the other hand, Chretien officially approved North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In 1998, he was able to eliminate a massive debt, reduce the taxes, and produce Canada's first balanced budget since 1970 (Means). Even though the Liberal Party had difficult situations with its economics, Chretien led various "Team Canada" trade missions to different countries

    Read More

  • The Prime Minister of Canada

    1908 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Prime Minister of Canada is given much power and much responsibility. This could potentially create a dangerous situation if the government held a majority and was able to pass any legislation, luckily this is not the case. This paper will argue that there are many limitations, which the power of the prime minister is subject too. Three of the main limitations, which the Prime Minister is affected by, are; first, federalism, second the governor general and third, the charter of rights and freedoms. I will support this argument by analyzing two different types of federalism and how they impact the power of the Prime Minister. Next I will look at three of the Governor Generals Powers and further analyze one of them. Last I will look at the impact of the charter from the larger participation the public can have in government, and how it increased the power of the courts.

    Read More

More about Canadian Leader: Pierre Elliot Trudeau

Open Document