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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
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