Pierre Trudeau: Father of Modern Canada? (taxes, living in, legal)

[Chris Balducci]

Is Pierre Trudeau primarily responsible for the "liberaltarian" (liberal welfare state, culturally libertarian) ethos that makes up modern Canada's identity?

[mikeyyc]

Please, God, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[Acajack]

Yes. We are most definitely living in Trudeau's Canada. For the reasons cited by the OP, and also many other things like the Charter of Rights, immigration, multiculturalism, bilingualism, etc.

For better or for worse.

What Trudeau did was he took a bunch of ideas which were until then largely the domain of select élites (mostly in Montreal, but also from other parts of the country) and implemented them (some would say foisted or forced upon) across the entire country.

[Chris Balducci]

Originally Posted by Acajack

What Trudeau did was he took a bunch of ideas which were until then largely the domain of select élites (mostly in Montreal, but also from other parts of the country) and implemented them (some would say foisted or forced upon) across the entire country.

Trudeau took Quebec's "Quiet Revolution" and made it national.
He was a softie for Marxists. Witness his close relationship with Fidel Castro.
Yes, the United States propped up right-wing dictatorships, but I don't think any of our presidents were close friends with them.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Chris Balducci

Trudeau took Quebec's "Quiet Revolution" and made it national.

Not all of it, but good-sized chunks of it.

He also sought inspiration in other parts of the country and around the world as well, though yes, his greatest source was the chattering classes of Montreal.

[Zoisite]

Originally Posted by Chris Balducci

Is Pierre Trudeau primarily responsible for the "liberaltarian" (liberal welfare state, culturally libertarian) ethos that makes up modern Canada's identity?

Okay, I am going to be totally honest with you here so please bear with me and help me out by explaining it to me. This is something I'm ignorant about and I haven't got the foggiest idea of what you're talking about. I don't know what that is or what it means and I'm wondering if you're just catching me off guard by using some kind of pseudo-intellectual buzz words that are popular with people south of the border rather than here in Canada.

This "liberaltarian" (liberal welfare state, culturally libertarian) ethos. Seriously, I don't know what any of that means and I wasn't aware that "it" makes up modern Canada's identity, let alone that a single other person might be responsible for it (whatever "it" is).

So please educate me from your personal point of view so I don't have to do an internet search that will only give me a bunch of conflicting and contraditory definitions. I would appreciate a full definition of the words "liberaltarian ethos". I would like an explanation of what a liberal welfare state is because I sure didn't know that Canada was ANY kind of welfare state at all, liberal or otherwise, and I would like to know what "culturally libertarian" means.

Please and thank you very much.

.

[Chris Balducci]

"Liberaltarian" is a buzzword resulting from the combination of "liberal" and "libertarian". "Liberal" in the sense of supporting higher taxes to fund government health and welfare programs, pushing for legal abortion and non-traditional marriage). "Libertarian" in the sense of being cool with "alternative" lifestyles (homosexuality, use of drugs, prostitution, etc.)
In other words, the opposite of what social conservatives in America would like.
"Ethos" is a Greek word meaning "character". I hope this helps.

[mikeyyc]

Originally Posted by Chris Balducci

Trudeau took Quebec's "Quiet Revolution" and made it national.
He was a softie for Marxists. Witness his close relationship with Fidel Castro.
Yes, the United States propped up right-wing dictatorships, but I don't think any of our presidents were close friends with them.

Except Marcos, and Pinochet, and Noriega, and...

[BIMBAM]

Originally Posted by Chris Balducci

Is Pierre Trudeau primarily responsible for the "liberaltarian" (liberal welfare state, culturally libertarian) ethos that makes up modern Canada's identity?

Partially. I think he was more the manifestation of the ideas that already existed in the population, not the cause of those ideas. The epicentre of this was Quebec and the quiet revolution, I think. The influence of the powerful Anglo Quebecker elite and diaspora really helped export these values to other provinces, especially Ontario, but if you look at Britain these ideas and tendancies probably always existed, as evidenced by the long tradition of Red Tories in Canada, especially the West. Our health care system had its roots not in the ivory towers of Montreal, but in the collectivist tendancies of farmers in Saskatchewan and depression era union types whose struggles culminated in the Winnipeg General Strike. My own thoughts are that the liberalism was always a big part the way the country thought, but the social libertarianism really grew up out of Quebec, in Canada, but we also shouldn't discount the influence of progressive thinkers from abroad.

[Chris Balducci]

I thought Quebec's Anglophone elite were a target, not the supporters, of Quebec's Quiet Revolution.
It is ironic that at one time Quebec was once Canada's most conservative province, very agrarian and Catholic.
Now the churches are largely empty, if not shuttered.