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Quebec is better at honoring Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who rode with Nazi motorcycle gangs in Montreal, then supporting true Canadian heroes. Canada has a proud military tradition. Quebec should be ashamed of itself. Excerpt from article:
Trudeau did not ride with Nazi motorcycle gangs. There were no such gangs in existence in Canada during Trudeau's university years.
He was said to have worn a helmet while riding a motorcycle around the streets of Montreal during the war years that resembled a German army helmet, which would have been difficult to pigeonhole as a "Nazi" helmet as it was designed and distributed to German troops during world war ONE, almost a quarter century before the term "Nazi" was ever verbalized.
As to the rest of your post regarding Leo Major or a host of other Canadian military stand-outs and how they're virtually anonymous, I could not agree more. However, mores the pity, that is the Canadian way.
Trudeau did not ride with Nazi motorcycle gangs. There were no such gangs in existence in Canada during Trudeau's university years.
He was said to have worn a helmet while riding a motorcycle around the streets of Montreal during the war years that resembled a German army helmet, which would have been difficult to pigeonhole as a "Nazi" helmet as it was designed and distributed to German troops during world war ONE, almost a quarter century before the term "Nazi" was ever verbalized.
My source is Trudeau, Son of Quebec, Father of Canada. Even though I know nothing about Canada I did read that book. As well as On the Take, about the Mulroney years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BruSan
As to the rest of your post regarding Leo Major or a host of other Canadian military stand-outs and how they're virtually anonymous, I could not agree more. However, mores the pity, that is the Canadian way.
In addition to that being the Canadian way, I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that, nominally, Canadian troops fought under the Union Jack, under British generalship. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Trudeau did not ride with Nazi motorcycle gangs. There were no such gangs in existence in Canada during Trudeau's university years.
He was said to have worn a helmet while riding a motorcycle around the streets of Montreal during the war years that resembled a German army helmet, which would have been difficult to pigeonhole as a "Nazi" helmet as it was designed and distributed to German troops during world war ONE, almost a quarter century before the term "Nazi" was ever verbalized.
.
Totally accurate.
Trudeau like many uppity French Canadians of his generation had a mild soft spot for the Germans in general during the war years under the principle of the "enemy of my enemy is my friend".
These people felt they were under the yoke of the British and the British Empire. So they did not want to fight for it and sympathized with their adversaries.
Quebec is better at honoring Pierre Elliot Trudeau,:
Quebec actually does very little to honour Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Looking at the Banque de Toponymes of place names in Quebec there is almost nothing in the province named for Trudeau. I mean, literally nothing almost. I think there is one park in Montreal (likely close to where he lived) and of course the airport in Montreal which was named by the federal government in Ottawa as per their authority. Not by local authorities in Montreal.
But this hostility to Trudeau in Quebec is not related to his alleged relationship with anti-Semitism either way.
Finally, far more stuff is named for Trudeau outside Quebec than in his home province. Especially schools.
Many people did similar things elsewhere in Canada, like for instance Russian Mennonites, on the basis of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. My grandparents had a poster of Hitler but my grandfather also had a Jewish friend, a peddler who came around and also updated people on the news. His German relatives had been writing and saying how things were in Germany for the Jews and my grandfather believed him. So the poster disappeared and my father was told Hitler was a "bad man."
Many people did similar things elsewhere in Canada, like for instance Russian Mennonites, on the basis of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. My grandparents had a poster of Hitler but my grandfather also had a Jewish friend, a peddler who came around and also updated people on the news. His German relatives had been writing and saying how things were in Germany for the Jews and my grandfather believed him. So the poster disappeared and my father was told Hitler was a "bad man."
Quebec most definitely has a history of anti-Semitism and you did have that going on here at that time. But people like Trudeau and Roux were not part of the movement in any meaningful way.
They didn't, at least some didn't. There are numerous recollections of Holocaust denial in the US even when the Holocaust was happening and there were not a few instances of American citizens, primarily those of German descent, who were against the war effort because they did not want America to harm their kinsmen back in the old world.
How you describe the atittude of the Quebecois towards Canadian war heroes of both world wars is similar to how the Irish in Northern Ireland felt. You had two camps, the Ulster Unionists, mostly Protestant, who were pro-Crown and contributed greatly to WWI to fight for Britain and then you had the staunchly pro-Irish freedom supporters, mostly Catholic, who wanted nothing to do with a conflict in which they would have had to shed their blood for a nation they regarded as an oppressor. Funny how history can reflect itself in many different places.
Quebec actually does very little to honour Pierre Elliot Trudeau.
They gave him an awful lot of their ridings. And in 1979 the Social Credits wouldn't support Clark, allowing Trudeau to get back in, from what I remember. That's what counts.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
But this hostility to Trudeau in Quebec is not related to his alleged relationship with anti-Semitism either way.
Probably had more to do with the FLQ situation. I remember hearing about that on the car radio when being driven from soccer to a Bar Mitzvah in October 1970. Those reports account for what little I know about Canada.
My belief that the time, when I was 13, was that Trudeau was "sending a message" that rebellions of the style that plagued U.S. college campuses during the springs of 1968, 1969 and 1970 were unwelcome in Canada. The last of those, in May 1970 proved fatal for some students.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
Finally, far more stuff is named for Trudeau outside Quebec than in his home province. Especially schools.
But the memory of PE Trudeau, at least in Quebec, is not really ''honoured'' either.
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