Young Trudeau
I just finished reading Max and Monique Nemni's "Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada - 1919-1944." The book caught the attention of many Trudeau scholars because of what it reveals about his early life at College Brebeuf and l'Universite de Montreal: his deep involvement in a secretive nationalist group of young francophone Quebecois who sympathized with fascist and anti-semitic movements and thinkers in Italy and Vichy France.
It also revealed that as a young student, Trudeau had little time for liberalism, parliamentary democracy or the freedom of the individual over the group; in fact, he promoted a corporatist state system of the type endorsed by the Catholic church at the time, one that would be ruled by a small elite with the authority to impose their morals, economic doctrines and strictly nationalist ideologies on a people deemed to be incapable of deciding these things for themselves.
Such revelations concerning one of Canada's most respected political figures are indeed both surprising and at times "shocking" - true to Lysiane Gagnon's reaction on the back cover of the book. However, they are not sufficient to completely reverse my own perceptions of the man he would later become. If anything, his dramatic transition from the young, ardently nationalist and closed-minded individual he represented in his early years into the staunch supporter of liberalism, individual rights, parliamentary democracy and a united Canada that he became as a statesman only serves to reinforce the strength of his subsequent ideas.
Only by rejecting the ideological framework that he had previously believed to represent the one 'truth' during his first twenty-five years in favour of the one he would later espouse could Trudeau become the influential and respected leader that left an indelible mark on Canadian history and citizenship. Despite the disconcerting revelations concerning Trudeau's early years in this volume - which reads like an intimate conversation between the reader and its authors and is the first of two by the Nemni's - his subsequent accomplishments as a statesman remain those for which he should be remembered and respected rather than the radical pursuits of his indoctrinated youth.
It also revealed that as a young student, Trudeau had little time for liberalism, parliamentary democracy or the freedom of the individual over the group; in fact, he promoted a corporatist state system of the type endorsed by the Catholic church at the time, one that would be ruled by a small elite with the authority to impose their morals, economic doctrines and strictly nationalist ideologies on a people deemed to be incapable of deciding these things for themselves.
Such revelations concerning one of Canada's most respected political figures are indeed both surprising and at times "shocking" - true to Lysiane Gagnon's reaction on the back cover of the book. However, they are not sufficient to completely reverse my own perceptions of the man he would later become. If anything, his dramatic transition from the young, ardently nationalist and closed-minded individual he represented in his early years into the staunch supporter of liberalism, individual rights, parliamentary democracy and a united Canada that he became as a statesman only serves to reinforce the strength of his subsequent ideas.
Only by rejecting the ideological framework that he had previously believed to represent the one 'truth' during his first twenty-five years in favour of the one he would later espouse could Trudeau become the influential and respected leader that left an indelible mark on Canadian history and citizenship. Despite the disconcerting revelations concerning Trudeau's early years in this volume - which reads like an intimate conversation between the reader and its authors and is the first of two by the Nemni's - his subsequent accomplishments as a statesman remain those for which he should be remembered and respected rather than the radical pursuits of his indoctrinated youth.
posted by Per at 11:19 a.m.
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