Canadian Prime Ministers

Canadian Prime Ministers

Pierre Trudeau

Regional interests are complicated further by the fact that Canada's most influential prime ministers in recent years, have come from Quebec. Pierre Trudeau, who served from 1968 to 1984 (with a small interruption of 9 months),was a francophone (French speaker) born in Montreal.Despite his French roots, he had a vision of a powerful and united Canada based on bilingualism and he worked very hard to bring English and French Canada closer together. Trudeau introduced vigorous programs to promote the use of French throughout Canada, including making the learning of French compulsory in schools; introducing the use of both French and English labels on products and services; making opportunities—and money—available for people to study French and/or English; and promoting French language and culture through the media, providing French language programming everywhere. His efforts to unite the country were successful to a degree in that many Canadians became familiar with, and committed to French heritage and saw this element as one of the things that made Canada unique and interesting.

Trudeau was also an important Prime Minister in that he took the steps necessary to make Canada completely independent of Great Britain. In 1982 he introduced the Constitution Act which gave Canada complete legal independence. Before this, changes to the Canadian Constitution had to be approved by the British parliament. This was merely a technicality—the UK always gave its approval—but Trudeau thought it was time to cut this colonial tie.

Brian Mulroney

Canada's next influential Prime Minister was the Conservative Brian Mulroney, who led the government between 1984 and 1993. Like Trudeau, Mulroney was also born and educated in Quebec, but he came from Quebec's English—speaking community rather than from the French—speaking community like Trudeau (both, however, are fluent at both national languages, an ability which is considered very important for anyone considering going into federal politics). Mulroney's task as Prime Minister was again dominated by the problem of Quebec, which was growing increasingly loud in its demands for special recognition. Trudeau's attempts to forge a country in which French people would feel at home had not worked. Trudeau said that Canada already had the most de—centralised government in the world, and that if any more powers were given to the provinces, the country would collapse. After many attempts to meet Quebec's demands, Brian Mulroney failed as well. After a great deal of negotiating with all the provinces, the Mulroney government introduced the Meech Lake Accord which would recognize Quebec as a "distinct society". All the provincial governments had to agree to this, and some provincial governments objected, arguing that all Canadians should have their rights protected equally. Thus the Meech Lake Accord failed in 1990 and the problem remained.

In addition to the Quebec problem, however, Mulroney made many very important contributions to Canada. In 1988 he signed a free trade agreement with the United States, bringing into being NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), which removed trade barriers between Canada and the US and paved the way for further such agreements with Mexico and South America. His government also introduced the Multiculturalism Act(1988).

The idea of multiculturalism was actually Trudeau's, who in 1971 announced a policy in which Canada officially affirmed its pride in and support of the various ethnic, racial and religious groups that make up the country. In 1982 this idea was expressed again in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms(1982) in which the federal government promised to support any groups which wanted to sustain their cultural identity; the 1988 Multiculturalism Act further strengthened and explained this promise.

Jean Chretien

The Prime Minister, Jean Chretien, was also born in Quebec, and, as his name suggests, is a member of the French speaking community. He has had a very long political career, having first become an MP in 1963. He was a Cabinet Minister, and one of Trudeau's most trusted colleagues throughout the 1970s and is seen as the natural successor to Trudeau's vision of keeping Canada together.

What is notable about these three influential Canadian leaders is that, despite their party differences, they have many similarities. They all shared the vision of a strong, united Canada and have paid special attention to the cultural diversity of the nation. They have been concerned with trying to create a Canada that French speakers from Quebec feel at home in. And the fact that they themselves are from the Quebec community is suggestive of the fact that even in Quebec, not all French speakers are in favour of independence. The idea of a multicultural, bilingual Canada emerged from Quebec and these men have worked hard to overcome the regionalism of the country.

There is one other interesting points to be made about these men. They are all educated as lawyers, and the number of Canadian Prime Ministers with a background in law is quite amazing. It is said that Canada is obsessed with federalism and with law, and with using the law to try to create a nation state in which various communities, races and religions are not merely tolerated, but respected. Therefore, it is not surprising, perhaps, that there are so many lawyers in powerful and influential positions.

Canada has a reputation for being "boring"—one writer joked that Canada is the only nation in the world where a book on federalism may be bought in any major airport. But in fact, what Canadian policy-makers have tried to do is to find peaceful and fair means to resolve complicated political issues which in so many regions of the world have led to war, bloodshed and injustice. Boring or not, Canada has avoided the worst excesses of intolerance and prejudice that have characterised many nations where different nationalities and ethnic groups coexist, be it the Irish in Britain, the blacks in South Africa or the Bosnians in Serbia.

Previous Page        Next Page