Nino Ricci, Pierre Elliott Trudeau

Over the past year, Penguin Books has published eighteen books in its new Extraordinary Canadians series. Edited by John Ralston Saul, the series attempts to provide readers with a series of accessible biographies of well-known and significant Canadians ranging from Stephen Leacock to Big Bear to Emily Carr. Saul has selected a diverse array of authors, most of them popular writers, although with a few historians in the mix, largely on the basis of their writing abilities and their personal connections to their subjects.

Given the task of covering Canada’s highly controversial federalist prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau is novelist Nino Ricci, author of the Governor General Award-winning The Origin of Species (a compelling read itself, although I don’t generally blog on my fiction reading). Ricci grew up in the Trudeau era and lived in Montreal in his twenties in an (admittedly unsuccessful) effort to embrace bilingualism. Beyond this, Ricci poignantly observes in the closing pages of the book that his own life was clearly marked by Trudeau’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms on the day he served as best man at a the wedding of two close gay friends.

Personal anecdotes regarding how Trudeau shaped Ricci’s own lived experience enliven this lively narrative of Trudeau’s life. For those who have read much of the academic work on Trudeau’s life, much of what appears here will be familiar. Ricci draws heavily on recent books by John English and Max & Monique Nemni to examine Trudeau’s childhood, adolescence and life to the age of 40. Other chapters cover the major political highlights of Trudeau’s political career, including the October Crisis, the 1980 Quebec referendum, and the patriation of the Constitution. Although Ricci tends to side with Trudeau’s detractors on both his handling of the FLQ crisis and his dealings with René Lévesque, he provides a generally even-handed approach to these events, noting Trudeau’s reluctance to impose the War Measures Act even when Robert Bourassa pleaded for it, and acknowledging that it was highly unlikely that Lévesque would ever have signed a new constitutional arrangement. One may quibble with Ricci’s account of the formation of the Kitchen Accord that led to the 1982 constitution, but his is not a polemical account of Trudeau’s years, which I suspect will make it palatable to both Trudeau’s detractors and admirers.

As with any biography, Ricci was faced with choices of what to emphasize and what to exclude. There is little here about Trudeau’s foreign policy or his post-1984 life (except for a few brief pages on the 1987-92 constitutional battles) or – perhaps most notably in light of the fact that he included a detailed chapter on Margaret Sinclair and his three sons – the fact that Trudeau fathered a daughter with Deborah Coyne. Those omissions aside, Ricci provides a lively and highly readable narrative on the significant issues he did choose to address and provides a good introduction to the highly complicated man who served as Canada’s prime minister for sixteen years. Those seeking richer detail should definitely check out John English’s Citizen of the World which covers the period of Trudeau’s life up to 1968, and the forthcoming second volume of this biography. But for those seeking a quick introduction, Ricci’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau is a highly engaging read. I read it on my flight from Calgary to Kitchener, and even as a historian of the Trudeau period, I found little to object to and much to praise in his treatment of the man’s life.

Canada 142

One hundred and forty-two years since Confederation - we can hardly be called a young country any more!

A fair bit of my work centers on Canada Day celebrations and nationalism, but rather than treat you to a history lesson today, why not enjoy a little bit of Centennial fun, courtesy of Bobby Gimby!

My apologies to everyone who clicks that link and is unable to get CA-NA-DA out of their head for the next week!

If you are interested in a history lesson, I suggest you check out this article by my friend Kyle Franz in the Globe and Mail about how weak the protections under federal legislation are for national historic sites. People often complain that Canada has few significant old buildings - and nothing compared to Europe. As things stand, we might have few that survive into their ripe old age...

Happy Canada Day!

Language flap - CBC and CTV feed the trolls

Around noon today, CBC News and CTV News had posted stories that two anglophone bands were being dropped from a concert for Quebec's Fete Nationale. Predictably, the trolls flooded the comment boards denouncing Quebec, the French language, bilingualism, etc.

But here's the interesting twist. By 2 PM, Quebec culture minister Christine St-Pierre had denounced the decision, and she was joined by PQ culture critic Pierre Curzi by mid-afternoon. By 5:36, La Presse was reporting that the decision to exclude the anglophone groups had been overturned. But by 9:30 PM, both CTV and CBC were still running "Anglos excluded" headlines on their main news pages.

Irresponsible journalism? Unilingual laziness? Or just sensational troll-feeding? I suspect a combination of all three. And it irritates me profoundly. In the era of Twitter and blogs, our main English news sources should not be hours behind their French counterparts on breaking news.

Louise Harel, Montreal and the English language

Most Canadians are probably not keeping a close eye on the upcoming mayoral race in Montreal. Indeed, I would imagine that most Canadians pay little close attention to municipal politics outside of their own city, if even that - barring a federal minister telling the city council of Toronto to f#@$ off!

But these are interesting times in Montreal, as the embattled team surrounding current mayor Gérald Tremblay is facing a strong challenge from former Péquiste minister Louise Harel. Why is this of such interest? Because Harel is, for all intents and purposes, a unilingual francophone, and Montreal has almost always had a bilingual mayor to preside over its diverse linguistic population, which includes a very large anglophone cohort.

Many have, and will continue to argue that there is no reason why Montreal, Quebec's largest city, should not be governable by a unilingual francophone. And perhaps, if Harel were to surround herself with solid advisors, this would not pose an insurmountable problem. But that being said, there is an excellent editorial today in La Presse discussing the schizophrenic relationship that Quebec has with the English language. Editorialist Mario Roy shrewdly points out that although French is a vibrant, dynamic language, with influence that exceeds its political power internationally, it is foolish to refuse to learn English "comme un geste politique noble" (as a noble political gesture), given the widespread cultural, intellectual and political import of the language. It is a defence of the French language as the common political language of the province, but also a recognition that second-language learning, and in this case, to build English-language capacity, is something to be desired to be fully plugged into contemporary global culture.

Whether or not this editorial will resonate far beyond La Presse's largely federalist readership is an open question. But nonetheless, it remains true for me that this newspaper continues to provide some of the most intelligent columns and editorials in the country. And it's a real shame that far too many English-Canadians are too stubborn to recognize that they would benefit from learning how to read French so that they could appreciate the writings found not only in this paper, but through the publishing houses read by 25% of their country's population!

Mike Harris - a Positive Outcome

10 years ago, the Mike Harris Conservatives were running for re-election in Ontario. Sadly, they won that election. But the 1999 provincial campaign was not without its positive spin-off effects.

Ten years ago, two students at the University of Ottawa were so upset with the policies of the Harris government that they were willing to schlep their way out to the outskirts of Ottawa on public transit to register to vote. It turned out to be their first date, as they spent the following afternoon together beside the Rideau Canal.

Who would have thought that Mike Harris would prove to be responsible for a gay relationship that has lasted for the past ten years? I'll always have a tiny soft spot for his administration, as it brought me together with my husband - ten years on, we're still together!

BC Math: 46=58, 8=0, 42=42

What's up with the funny mathematics? It's the mathematics that British Columbia's first-past-the-post system used to deliver a third majority government to Gordon Campbell's Liberals, who took 46% of the popular vote, but over 57% of the seats in the legislature. The 8% of BC voters who opted for the Green party will have no MLAs to represent them. The NDP, oddly enough, actually won the number of seats proportional to their share of the vote.

But apparently BC voters are ok with this. Less than 39% of voters were willing to vote in favour of the single transferable vote system. This is really quite depressing, after 57% of BC voters had opted for electoral reform in the last provincial election. I understand why established parties like FPTP - it allows them to create single-party majority governments without having to win a majority of the popular vote. And for enough people, the risk is worth the inequity it creates.

It's still depressing though.

Gay marriage in the USA - Legislatures Take Action

After last November's crushing disappointment with the passage of Proposition 8 in California, I must say that I'm extremely heartened to observe that the movement for gay rights in the United States has not only not slowed down, but appears to be gaining momentum in both the courts and state legislatures.

Today, the District of Columbia city council voted to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions and the House of Representatives in Maine is set to vote later today on a bill to legalize same-sex marrage. The state Senate voted in favour of the bill, and so most observers are expecting that the heavily Democratic house will follow suit. There's a veritable cluster of same-sex marriages and domestic partner registries emerging in the Northeast. Hopefully this momentum will help the proposal that is emerging in New York.

Now if only Obama would stop being such a weasel and get rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

UPDATE: The Maine House voted in favour of the bill 89-58 but there is a possibility that the state governor, a Democrat who is opposed to same-sex marriage, will veto the bill.