Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site dciem.UUCP Path: utzoo!dciem!mmt From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Re: BYE FRITZ Message-ID: <1237@dciem.UUCP> Date: Mon, 3-Dec-84 14:58:08 EST Article-I.D.: dciem.1237 Posted: Mon Dec 3 14:58:08 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 3-Dec-84 15:56:41 EST References: <2784@ucbcad.UUCP> <1205@dciem.UUCP>Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada Lines: 37 Summary: =================== Pretty big talk, considering you are so unfortunate as to live in Canada. Tell me about Trudeau -- I promise not to laugh. =================== Some people may call it unlucky to live in Canada, but those who have the (mis?)fortune to do so don't think themselves unlucky. Tell you about Trudeau? OK... You are talking about the politician who more clearly than any current leader could see what was necessary in the current state of the world. Unfortunately, his personality did not appeal to those who initially elected him as a God. He turned out to be human, which was a big let-down to those people, and naturally they turned against him. No human is strong enough or clever enough to run a country single-handed, and Trudeau's intellectual power and learned arrogance tended to drive away the second-best from his Cabinet. Those people might well have been best, in other company. Trudeau's problem was not in poor judgment of what to do, but inability to get it across in ways people could understand. He did not pander. I don't think my opinion of Trudeau has changed very much since he was first elected. I never succumbed to Trudeaumania, and I never reviled him when he was down, either. I think he is the best we have had in actual power for a long time. His story is worthy of a Greek tragedy, in that his own strength was his undoing. Now Trudeau has gone, I expect an inward turning of Canada, with less emphasis on the North-South dialogue that is essential to both the economy and the politics of the West; I expect less concern with foreign aid and appropriate development; I expect more concern for the short-term interests of big business in foreign trade and less with the long-term interests of civilization. -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt {uw-beaver,qucis,watmath}!utcsrgv!dciem!mmt