“O Canada We Stand On Guard For Thee”
by Max and Monique Nemni and David Milne
Trudeau As Statesman: 1965-2000 shows how current threats to Canada were already being fought by Pierre Elliott Trudeau decades ago. They have not gone away. Quebec separatism posed the gravest threat to Canada from the 1960’s to the end of the 1990’s and this was the battle to which Trudeau devoted his political life. It brought Canadians a new Charter of Rights and Freedoms and constitutional independence in what we fondly called “patriation” of Canada’s constitution (or final legal independence from Britain.)
But there was a second “patriation,” for Pierre Trudeau “patriation of the economy” from American domination. In fact, this was a battle that engaged Trudeau and his generation of Canadians. There was then no American President calling for annexation of Canada. Nonetheless there was growing fear over Canada’s overdependence on trade with the U.S. and concern over increasing American ownership of Canada’s economy. Trudeau’s government responded with a strong program of economic nationalism that pushed back against American control of Canada’s economy. Patriating the economy was a key national objective: The National Energy Program of 1980 was perhaps its strongest expression.
But the government of Brian Mulroney took Canada in the opposite direction toward “free trade” and continental economic integration. The die was cast in a fiery debate in 1988 between Prime Minister Mulroney and John Turner who said Mulroney “had sold out Canada.” Abandoning patriation of Canada’s economy brought economic benefits but at the expense of economic independence and an extremely vulnerable trade position. With the arrival of Donld Trump, and trade war threats, Canadians now find themselves returning to strategies of Canadian economic independence.
O Canada — we face a trade war and an annexation threat. Perhaps also another referendum on Quebec independence by 2030. Pierre Trudeau’s story reminds us of fundamental internal and external challenges to Canada – both yesterday and today. These must be confronted if Canada is to prevail.