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      мллллллл  ллллллллн оллллллллн     ллл       лллллл
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    млллллллн    лллллллл  ллллллллн               оолллллллллп
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 мл оллллллллллп  ллллллллл плм  плллмм    ммлллп ол олллн         ммлл
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    ппппп                ппллп      ппппп        ппппппппппппп
          ARRoGANT                CoURiERS      WiTH     ESSaYS

Grade Level:       Type of Work           Subject/Topic is on:
 [ ]6-8                 [ ]Class Notes    [Essay on Pierre Elliot  ]
 [x]9-10                [ ]Cliff Notes    [Trudeau                 ]
 [ ]11-12               [x]Essay/Report   [                        ]
 [ ]College             [ ]Misc           [                        ]

 Dizzed: o4/95  # of Words:1543  School: ?              State: ?
ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>Chop Here>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ>ФФФФФФФФФ
                              THE POLITICS OF MY WAY
      
      Unlike the United States, with its generalissimo politics-Washington,
Jackson, Grant, Eisehower- the martial arts have been conspicuously absent
from Canadian politics.  But there in one exception: in 1968 Pierre Elliot
Trudeau became the first Canadian leader to bring the gunslinger-Lone
Ranger ethos to Canadian politics.

      Trudeau introduced to Canada the refined art of single combat; it was
the politics of "Doing It My Way"-the politics of going my way or being
left behind. Single-combat confrontation implied much mor than the loner or
renegade in power, and far far less than the shaman black tricks of
Mackenzie King.  Trudeau was always far more the solo Philosopher King
engaged in intellectual trial by combat than the Magus Merlin conjuring up
solutions by puffs of smoke, sleight of hand or divine intervention.
Ouijaboard politics was the occult domain of Mackenzie King, a man
virtually devoid of policy, a political palm reader forever checking the
whims and moods of his powerful baronial-Ralston Howe, St. Laurent-and
sometimes Byronian colleagues to see how best he could placate them, or
calm them, or Heap his beatitudes upon them.

      Trudeau, from day one , was always more samurai than shaman.  Even in
his pre- leadership days, Trudeau's love of trial by combat was
predominant.  Mackenzie King would have never touched the unholy trinity of
divorce, abortion and homosexuality: each one of these issues is a sleeping
dog best left to lie; each could only infuriate conservative Canada from
coast to coast.  Since King dared not touch them seriatim he certainly
would not have touched them together-in an omnibus bill.

      This, Trudeau did joyously.  The myths-makers have it at this was
Trudeau's first deliberated joust, the kingship being the final prize.  But
Trudeau had no leadership aspirations at the time; all that he had, still
has, was the love of combat for the sake of combat and religious scruples
be damned.  Trudeau the Catholic zealot tackle divorce, abortion and
homosexuality active Prime Minister in this country's history, liberated
the homosexual practitioners of black acts totally abhorrent to him;
ironically, in the process, Trudeau gave irrational Canada a pretext for
branding him a homosexual too.

      P.E.T. has always hated the consensus building of Mackenzie King;
even the populist following of a Diefenbaker was an anathema to Trudeau.
The single-combat warrior "doing it my way" is always alone; he leads the
people but is not of them; like the prophet he wanders either in dessert or
lush green pastures and often, like the prophet, he watches his people
march into the Promised Land without him.  For Trudeau, being alone is to
be free; victory is a consequence of solitude; companionship an act of
weakness, cronyism even wise.

      It is ironic that Trudeau, a devout Jansenist Roman Catholic,
emotionally and philosophically opposed to both divorce and abortion,
should grant Canadians greatly expanded divorce rights and their first
right to legale abortion.

      Trudeau took the unholy trinity then disturbing the bedrooms of the
nation because all three were trial combat, all three required one strong
man to push them through.  In this minefield Canada's political loner had
walked alone and apparently loved it.

      Canada's other solo flyer, John Diefenbaker, may or may not have been
a renegade in power, but the input his holitics received from Senate
cronies and Kitchen cabinets was enormous.  The letters and advice that
daily poured in to the chief were a populist input that Diefenbaker
slavishly adhered to.  Trudeau was no Diefenbaker; he was neither a
populist nor a renegade.  Trudeau was simply a man who brilliantly massaged
and manipulated others so that his single will appeared to be the will of
many, so that his will be always done.

      The theme of my-way politics sheds much light on the vrai Trudeau,
the Trudeau that is, rather than the Trudeau people think there is.
Trudeau has never been the privacy-demanding recluse, the reluctant leader
that herdsmen of Canadian journalism insist he is.

      In secular life Trudeau is no trinitarian; he has chosen his oneness
because, from the earliest politics, oneness worked for him so spectacular.
Trudeau's personal handling of the constriction crisis was a "my way" all
the way.  Trudeau, the self- proclaimed socialist prophet of his people,
waxed ever so eloquently against the sins of conscription, and yet Trudeau
seemingly could not see in War measures that potential greater evil of a
Canadian fascism that surly meant permanent conscription and enslavement of
all.  Equally puzzling is the referral of Trudeau's nationalist compatriots
and colleagues in the years since to give him any credit for fighting in
1942 a good nationalist fight on behalf of the anti-conscription,
quasi-separatist candidacy of Jean Drapeau; not so puzzling in the refusal
of Angelo Saxon patriots to give Trudeau any credit at all for joining a
reserve regiment before the war. There was both a typical Trudeau "a plague
on both your houses" in all this, and even more of the gunslinger spraying
bullets on both side of the saloon bar.

      The style of the lone gunslinger was already apperant in Trudeau's
early radical posture.  Cite libre was a radical editorial collective run
completely by Trudeau. Trudeau the then internationalist and socialist
shared ideological bed and board with David Lewis, Frank Scott, Eugene
Forsey and Theresa Casgrain, but only Trudeau's CCF and NDP membership
cards mysteriously do not exist today.  Even that minor bit of collectivist
discipline, the proud possession of a party card, was abhorrent to the
free-wheeling independent Trudeau.

      The ideologically committed gunslinger found little in the
democratic process to nourish him.  The social democratic Trudeau first
entered the electoral lists only only in the safest Liberal seat in the
country.  Trudeau knew that group dynamic, group participation, in not
ideologically and politically effective as when the few shape the many.

      This single-warrior syndrome explains many shifts and patterns in the
Trudeau character.  Diefenbaker revelled in the democratic panorama;
Diefenbaker failed to keep urban Canada aboard his carousel and never
really got french Canada aboard in the first place, but the Chief's
strengths and weakness flowed from the ordinary people who loved him and
the sophisticates and big city people who hated him.   P.E.T. never did
deal in democratic norms; instead, the elitist Trudeau gave Quebec's
elitists the first crack at the bilingual club and transformed the federal
bureaucracy, at least on its highest levels, to be a bilingual workplace in
which the frankphone would be supreme.


                                       INTRO

      Canada, and its record of careful middle-of-the-road politics has
produced leaders who were careful and middle-of-the-road as well, until
1968 when Canada and the world was introduced to Prime Minister Pierre
Elliot Trudeau.

      He had walked and cycled through Europe, and been on the wrong side
of the bars in foreign jails.  Not your average guy.  Not your average
Prime Minister.

      The future Prime Minister was the second child and the elder son of
the family.  He was born on October 18th, 1919.  At a very young age
Trudeau was the current, attacking authority and not giving a "DAMN" for
the public opinion.

      In 1940 Prime Minister Trudeau entered the law faculty at the
University of Montreal.  He says that he hesitated between law &
psychology, but had to settle for law since Montreal didn't offer
psychology and the war kept him in Canada.

      As a student he enlisted in the Canadian officers Training Corps. He
was given a commission on a lieutenant, a rank he held until his retirement
in 1947.

                            LIFE

      Joseph Philippe Pierre Elliote Trudeau to say his names in order was
born an October 18, 1919.  Pierre wasn't the sort of person that you think
would become one of Canada's longest in office Prime Ministers.

      At home Pierre's mother spoke mainly English, although she was fluent
in french.  His mother provided the English balance.  Charles- Emily
Pierre's father taught him sports as Pierre was very good at them.  Pierre
practised the art of KARATE and soon became a brown belt, one below black
belt.  He also knew how to skin dive and could descend 150 feet off a cliff
and come out without a scratch.  Other than teaching Pierre sports,
Charles-Emile also put together a franchise of gas stations that grew to
include 15,000 members and filling $1,400,000 for his stations.

      As a boy, living in Montreal, he favoured the English instead of the
French and when his friends were unhappy of the French losing, Pierre was
celebrating.  Many of his teachers in primary school said that Pierre was a
headstrong individualist who involved himself frequently in fights and
practical jokes.  In 1924 or 1925 Charles- Emily, Pierre father died, and
Pierre was only fourteen years old at the time.  Since his parents were so
rich he got driven to school by a chauffeur and ran with a crowd called LES
SNOBS.  As a student Pierre joined the COTC, Canadian Officers Training
Corps.  Pierre lack of self discipline got him into trouble a lot and he
was soon kicked out of the COTC.  Pierre didn't always get into trouble
actually as he was a very smart kid and one of his teachers commented that
Pierre was a pupil who was good at every subject.  In 1940 Pierre entered
the law faculty at the University of Montreal.
