Pierre Elliott Trudeau: The Great Beginnings

By: Noor Yassein

Certain things, you either love or hate. There seems to be no in-between. The same can go for people, especially in a field like politics where the tensions (and stakes) run high. Pierre Elliott Trudeau was a great leader whose lasting legacy lies mostly in social justice reform. However, his legacy is being both glorified and forgotten as he mostly began (rather than finalized) the reformation of issues which were not well-established at the time.

Having been in office for so long, Pierre Trudeau was known to many as the “elder statesman” of the West – a nickname wellearned. He was the third-longest-serving Prime Minister in Canadian history, behind only William Mackenzie King and Sir John A. MacDonald, and was involved in politics for many years prior. Trudeau started a remarkable amount of life-changing processes, many of which continue today. The first of these processes was gaining constitutional independence. His efforts allowed Canada to be more in charge of its own destiny. Similarly, another process which he spearheaded was that of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It began a process of constitutionalizing the rights of women and, later on, LGBTQ+ rights, among others, all across the country, and helped to protect those rights from the instability of the political process. He also spearheaded the Divorce Act of 1968, which allowed married couples to divorce without proof of adultery. Both the Charter and Divorce Act were ground-breaking for their time, and their impact is felt today.

If we broaden our view and look at the international stage, the impacts of Trudeau’s legacy can still be felt. He turned Canada into a country that could be seen and could act separately from Britain, no longer being under its influence and control. This further solidified Canada’s independence from the Queen when it came to governance and passing laws, thus introducing a new country to the global arena. Trudeau worked to ensure Canada had its own place on the international stage, establishing diplomatic relations with countries like China (before the U.S. did), while still remaining a part of NATO. Through these initiatives and his social justice reforms, Canada became an example of what could be. Having previously worked closely with Lester B. Pearson, he began implementing things that Pearson had introduced, and encouraged dialogue between North-South countries, as well as between more industrialized and wealthy countries and less well-developed countries.

However, not everything under Pierre Trudeau’s government was received well. His focus on social justice reforms at a time of economic recession caused significant uproar. While his accomplishments (such as constitutional reform) had significant positive and long-term effects, his prioritization of social justice at a time when many were suffering economically angered a lot of people. It was difficult for people who had more pressing and immediate needs to accept his focus on long-term issues, particularly when the solutions didn’t have an immediate positive effect. This may also have been what led to his eventual resignation in 1984. Many of the actions he took were only meant to get the ball rolling on important issues (Constitutional reform or the Charter, for example, or the Divorce Act of 1968). Unfortunately, the ball stopped shortly thereafter, and thus his legacy appears to fall short. Society tends to hold our leaders accountable to current-day standards, and in the case of the Charter, it didn’t go far enough. For that, Trudeau is sometimes criticized, although for its time, it was certainly an unprecedented change. Thus, the blame should not be placed on him – he set a solid foundation which he expected others would build on, and their lack of action is not his fault.

In 2019, the 100th anniversary of his birth took place. However, it was ironically overshadowed by the election campaign of his son – save for a few articles, and a video. The video in particular claimed what a progressive hero he had been, and falsely declared that he held many modern-day views which were relatively uncommon for his time – for instance, that he was pro-choice, or big on action against global warming, neither of which are true. This, in many ways, represents the way his legacy is often treated. Pierre Trudeau is seen as this shining beacon of hope, and yet besides constitutional independence, the specifics of what he did seem to have been forgotten or blurred over the years. Not only this, but in modern times, many people would like more, and so his legacy gets either downplayed, or overplayed. Some people claim he’s a hero up to modern-day standards, and this is just as false as claiming he wasn’t that impactful. He was a great leader for his time, but he was ultimately still a man of his time, and the changes he made could only go so far. However, we should not punish him for our progress. What can sometimes be forgotten is that without him, there would not be a place for progress to commence. Society is not where we would like it, but his legacy should not take the fall, and just because he did not finish everything he started does not mean what he started isn’t valuable. Thus, instead of blaming him for not doing more, we should be looking to current-day leaders to finish what he started.