The Legacy of Pierre Trudeau on National Unity - Essay Example

? The legacy of Pierre Trudeau on national unity Introduction The social and political rights of citizens are usually the key criteria for governments when having to establish policies for regulating various aspects of social and economic life. In many countries, the efforts to promote such policies face barriers due to the co-existence of conflicting interests. The specific problem has been made clear in Canada in 1960s. For many decades, the governors of Canada had to face the following dilemma: the country’s national unity would not be promoted due to the important cultural differences among its communities. Trudeau, who was appointed as the prime minister of Canada in 1968, was asked to resolve the above problem. The abilities of Trudeau as a prime minister have been strongly doubted; for certain people, Trudeau has been a unique leader establishing the national unity of Canada. For others, Trudeau had a key role in the elimination of the rights of Francophone communities to keep and promote their culture. The involvement of Trudeau in the promotion of national unity in Canada is explored in this paper. Reference is also made to the level at which the political choices of Trudeau were aligned or not with the rules of Canada’s constitution, a fact that is used in order to evaluate the success of Trudeau in promoting national unity in Canada. 2. Trudeau and National Unity The views of Trudeau in regard to national unity have been strongly affected by the social and political beliefs of his era. However, these beliefs are not necessarily identical, meaning that they can set different priorities in regard to the policies introduced in a particular country. In other words, political decisions can be often opposed to local social frameworks and concepts, such as ethnicity. The specific issue, which is highlighted in the study of Di Sciullo (2011) helps to understand the political choices of Trudeau, especially at the point that these choices affected Canada’s national unity. Trudeau used his position, as Canada’s prime minister in order to promote national unity. However, communities did not welcome his views due to the fact that they were opposed to local culture, as differentiated in English-speaking and French – speaking regions. The critical point where the conflict between Trudeau and the communities made clear was the following: in 1969, after a relevant initiative of Trudeau, Canada established the Official Languages Act 1969 (Di Sciullo 2011, p.30). In the context of the above Act equal rights were given to Francophones and Anglophones in Canada. Still, the position of people belonging to these communities was not similar. English had a series of privileges, mostly because of their financial potentials, as for example: they could easier enter ‘high-paid managerial positions’ (Di Sciullo 2011, p.30) compared to Francophones. Trudeau believed that by promoting the 1969 Act he could enhance unity in Canada but his initiative had opposite results. Francophones, especially those living in the area of Quebec considered this Act as an effort of the government to secure the rights of English across Canada (Di Sciullo 2011, p.30). It should be noted that the reaction of Francophones to the 1969 varied according to the following term: the unilingual population of Quebec was quite opposing towards the new law (Di Sciullo 2011, p.30) but the minorities groups within the Francophone communities welcomed the law. Indeed, the 1969 Act offered to people across Canada the potential to access easier public services (Di Sciullo 2011, p.30). In other words, the efforts of Trudeau to promote unity through initiating the establishment of the 1969 Act rather did not resulted to the expected outcome. Instead of promoting unity this Act increased conflicts between Francophone and Anglophone communities. Emphasis should be also given to the following fact: the 1969 Act was not aligned with the Constitution of Canada (Di Sciullo 2011). Many of this Act’s opposers were aware of this fact and they were waiting for the Act’s abolition in the near future. From this point of view, the initiative of Trudeau to support this Act, even it was against the Constitution, reveals his perceptions on political power. It is assumed that he was aware of the Act’s opposition to the Constitution but he preferred to enforce unity even if the terms of the state’s key legislative text were violated. Such initiative cannot be justified even if it is well planned and necessary since there is always the risk of other violations of a country’s Constitution to follow. According to Dufour (2003), the legacy of Trudeau is characterized by the promotion of a new form of Canadian nationalism, which does not respect cultural variances in Canada, with a particular reference to the Francophone areas of Quebec. The identification of a solution in regard to the rights of people in the above region has been one of the major duties of Trudeau as prime minister. The appointment of Trudeau as prime minister was supposed to end the conflicts on nationalism and to promote piece between Anglophone and Francophone communities in Canada (Dufour 2003). Instead, Trudeau promoted cultural conflicts across Canada (Dufour 2003). Even if he opposed nationalism he enforced policies, which were against the rights of people in Quebec. Indeed, the policies of Trudeau gave the impression that the state was fighting the cultural identity of these people (Dufour 2003). The image of Trudeau as the promoter of national unity was false, being based on a new form of nationalism, which was not based on equality among people but rather on the establishment of common cultural characteristics for all Canadians (Dufour 2003). The characteristics of Trudeau’s legacy are analyzed in the study of Hunt (2003). According to the above researcher, the legacy of Trudeau is based on the following targets: multiculturalism needs to be promoted in order for the cultural freedom of a country’s population to be secured (Hunt 2003, p.88). The above fact has been highlighted in a ‘Trudeau’s speech to the House of Commons’ (Hunt 2003, p.88). Hunt (2003) further explains that Trudeau tried to promote the idea that Canada had to become open so that cultural discriminations and conflicts between communities to be eliminated (Hunt 2003). Of particular importance is the view of Trudeau in regard to the elements of National Unity, as this view was stated during to the speech of Trudeau to the House of Commons; for Trudeau, National Unity ‘must be founded on confidence in one’s own individual identity’ (Hunt 2003, p.88). This description of National Unity can be characterized as rather ‘tricky’ leading to the following assumption: one can keep its own identity but cannot enforce others to respect it. Such approach leads to the further assumption that cultural identity of groups of people should not be protected. In other words, for Trudeau culture is a concept related to the background of people as individual units and not as groups. From a similar point of view, Ipperciel (2008) noted that Trudeau had promoted a form of constitutional patriotism, which was based on the views of Habernas (Ipperciel 2008, p.40). It is explained that for Habernas, culture was separated by state, meaning that ‘cultural activities should be developed independently from state activities’ (Ipperciel 2008, p.40). This view justifies the involvement of Trudeau in the promotion of Official Languages Act 1969 which promoted equality at the level of the state but violated the rights of communities to keep their own culture. However, this view comes to an opposition with the following fact: the 1969 Act, as promoted by Trudeau, violated the rules of Canada’s constitution. Does such initiative aim to show that the violation of Constitution is justified when acts of patriotism need to be developed? According to Ipperciel (2008) the protection of rights of individuals, as opposed to the rights of the groups, has been a key element of Trudeau’s legacy. It is perhaps in this context that Trudeau tried to promote the change of Constitution so that diversity is secured (Ipperciel 2008, p.41). Under these terms, the constitutional patriotism of Trudeau, a core element of his legacy, is closely related to the rights of individuals, an approach which can be quite risky having in mind the following fact: the cultural integration of a state can be severely threatened if diversity is supported at the level of individuals than at the level of groups. Also, such approach can lead to critical social conflicts, as indicated in the following fact: people in Francophone communities had not access to economic resources at equal level with the people of Anglophone communities (Rocher 2002). Therefore, people in Francophone communities of Canada were relied heavily on the state’s support in order to establish their business activities (Rocher 2002, p.5). The policies of Trudeau led to the worsening of the position of Francophone communities in Quebec. People in these communities had to face the hostility of the state due to their willingness to keep their cultures, a right recognized to people of other cultural backgrounds in Canada (Rocher 2002, p.5). The policies of Trudeau for promoting National Unity were not appropriately planned, leading to the opposite direction: to the isolation of Francophone communities of Canada. 3. Conclusion The level at which the political choices of Trudeau have promoted national unity or not can be made clear through his initiatives as a prime minister. His efforts to impose English as a language of equal power with French reveals his actual intentions in regard to national unity. Of course, it could be noted that such initiative indicates the willingness for unity; however, if the particular policy is carefully reviewed it leads to the following assumption: indeed, Trudeau aimed to promote national unity in Canada but his perceptions on the particular concept were differentiated from those of people in Quebec. For Trudeau, national unity in Canada would be secured only by the establishment of measures that would ensure equality for all people across the country, no matter their cultural background. Such approach has been incorrect; Canada, as also other countries, is not based on a unique culture. People across the specific country are likely to have different cultural backgrounds, which need to be respected by the government. Moreover, certain of the political choices of Trudeau, as for example the Official languages Act of 1969 were opposed to the rules of Canada’s constitution, a fact that leads to severe concerns in regard to the legality of Trudeau’s initiatives. In any case, the efforts for promoting national unity in Canada should not be based on the violation of rights of individuals in regard to their culture. Such approach, would lead not to the achievement of national unity but to the enforcement of social conflicts, a phenomenon appeared during the governance of Canada by Trudeau. References Di Sciullo, Vincent “Globalization, Ethnicity, and Politics of Identity: Quebec’s Resistance to Cultural Homogenization.” McGill International Review 1.1(2011): 27-34, accessed February 12, 2012. http://www.irsam.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/VincentdiSciullo.pdf Dufour, Christian. “Trudeau’s Canadian Legacy from a Quebec Perspective: New Canadian Nationalism Weakens Canada.” London Journal of Canadian Studies 18(2002/2003): 5-13, accessed February 12, 2012. http://www.canadian-studies.net/lccs/LJCS/Vol_18/Dufour.pdf Hunt, Wayne. “The ‘Branding’ of Trudeau.” London Journal of Canadian Studies 18(2002/2003): 87-101, accessed February 12, 2012. http://www.canadian-studies.net/lccs/LJCS/Vol_18/Hunt.pdf Ipperciel, Donald “Where did Trudeau go wrong? On the Question of Nationalism and Charter Patriotism in Canada.” Constitutional Forum constitutionnel 17.2(2008): 39-47, accessed February 12, 2012. http://www2.csj.ualberta.ca/Ipperciel/PagePersonnelle/textes/WhereDidTrudeauGoWrong.pdf Rocher, Francois “The Evolving Parameters of Quebec Nationalism.” International Journal on Multicultural Societies 4.1(2002):1-21, accessed February 12, 2012. http://www.criec.uqam.ca/Page/Document/textes_en_lignes/evolving_parameters.pdf Read More