Aug. 3, 2006: #10 Charisma, the intellect ...

Trudeau, Laski and Hayek

http://
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinions/columnists/Jeffrey+Simpson.html

The halo has slipped.

Jeffrey Simpson: Pierre Trudeau was no Talbot Papineau July 15, 2006 12:00 AM Page A17
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinions/columnists/Jeffrey+Simpson.html

Combine this with viewing the latest of the CBC's efforts to keep Pierre Trudeau--and by extension his ideas and his family--before the public's eyes: Trudeau II (see below) and, altogether, it is not a pretty picture of the CBC nor of the ex-PM.

So Pierre Trudeau's son, Justin, will play Talbot Papineau in a television series about the First World War, ostensibly because Mr. Papineau was, like the former prime minister: bilingual, bicultural, a foe of narrow Quebec nationalism and an ardent Canadian.

Simpson disagreed with the idea of likening Trudeau to Papineau. The whole article is worth reading.

Was Simpson actually helping to knock the halo off the head of the sainted Pierre Trudeau, subject of many a CBC advertorial for itself, for the leftists and the Liberals?


Trudeau II: Maverick in the Making repeat airing part one - Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 8:00 p.m. and part two - Thursday, July 20, 2006, 8:00 p.m. [It will undoubtedly come around again; these CBC productions usually do.]
www.cbc.ca/trudeau/

... a four-hour, two-part CBC Big Ticket mini-series ....

.... Quebec in the 40’s and 50’s.

... brings to life the turbulent Quebec society of Trudeau’s youth. The drama covers the pivotal moments of his life ... Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessis, the Roman Catholic Church, René Lévesque, ... Gérard Pelletier... Jean Marchand ... Cité Libre.... he left more than a few broken hearts in his wake.

“If the first mini-series ... was a portrait of Trudeau the Canadian, TRUDEAU II: MAVERICK IN THE MAKING is a portrait of Trudeau the Québecois,”...

... written by Wayne Grigsby and Guy Fournier, directed by Tim Southam and is produced by Nova Scotia’s Big Motion Pictures for CBC Television. Executive Producers are Grigsby and David MacLeod.

Omitted in this text are Trudeau's war years--he did not fight. He travelled, studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and with Harold Laski at the London School of Economics (UK Labour socialist or, some say, communist) -- see below, travelled to China ... There were allusions to his communist leanings, his lack of feeling for the women he bedded, what looked like a post-opium scene in the film, even mention by the actor playing Trudeau that some questioned PET's sexuality. (Who knows and who cares at this point?)

The actor chosen to play him wears the perfect sneer of the wealthy, educated elite who consider themselves intellectuals, secure in feeling that they are a cut above the intellectual level of others ... fortunate in that they have not had to become grounded in the reality of working for a living. Trudeau was an educated dilletante influenced by the left.

Remember Trudeau's admiration for Nyerere of Tanzania and Castro of Cuba? This quotation from Friedrich Hayek's book seems fitting in that Trudeau did redesign Canada; it might have been better for Canada had he been influenced more by Friedrich Hayek rather than by Harold Laski. "The Fatal Conceit, ... [is] about—rather than economics and how markets work—it’s more about the evolution of societies. I think that gives great pause to all of those who would seek to redesign society in their own image."


Trudeau is still a hot subject for CBC--lest we forget. His vaunted charisma still has them in his thrall. I'm guessing they and the Liberals are casting about for another charismatic one in his image who will hold Canadians enthrall to more socialist ideas.