Happy 40th Anniversary, Quebec Crisis or "Just Watch Me"

It was forty years ago today the FLQ kidnapped British trade commissioner in Montreal, James Cross.

By the time the crisis ended on Dec. 28, Quebec labour minister Pierre Laporte had also been kidnapped and then murdered, the national government of Pierre Trudeau had invoked the first peacetime use of the War Measures Act – suspending Canadians’ civil liberties – and the army had been deployed in Ottawa and throughout Quebec.

Canucks here can argue all we want about whether invoking The War Measures Act was justified, but this CBC interview with Pierre Trudeau on Parliament Hill shows that the PM had a really big set. His famous "Just watch me" is around 5:45 of the clip.

 

He'd have had a much bigger set if the terrorists hadn't been given slaps on the wrist. They should all have been strung up for treason.

 

Ack, more boomer love for Trudeau.

The justification of his action by seemingly intelligent people baffles me.

 

Can't watch this south of the border.

 

mais quand vous really speak white
quand vous get down to brass tacks

pour parler du gracious living
et parler du standard de vie
et de la Grande Société
un peu plus fort alors speak white
haussez vos voix de contremaîtres
nous sommes un peu durs d'oreille
nous vivons trop près des machines
et n'entendons que notre souffle au-dessus des outils

 

Try this one, not uploaded by CBC.

 

Are you talking about the War Measures Act or his legacy?

I have changed my views on the WMA...it was a basic trampling of civil rights but we've always been about "Peace, Order and Good Government"

And after Sir John A McDonald. Mike Pearson and Trudeau are the two greatest PM's in Canada's history. It's hard to even argue against that.

Who do the Conservatives have?

Diefenbaker? I don't think so. He blew the biggest majority in Canadian history. He was also, to put it mildly, a nutcase.

Mulroney? The most hated PM since WW2. Brought in the GST and NAFTA. Was the water boy for Ronnie Reagan

Harper? Please.

 

Like Louis Riel? Yeah, that worked out real well.

 

He didn't start any more rebellions after 1885, did he? ;D

 

I'm not a Mulroney fan, but history will be kinder to him than most others. (As it will be to Chretien who, legislatively, was a far more effective PM than Trudeau)
You are clearly blinded by some 70s and 80s nostalgia that seems pervasive these days

 

What nostalgia are you talking about? I'm not nostalgic about anything.

I'm saying that Trudeau, despite his faults, including a massive dose of arrogance, is arguably the most important PM since Pearson in terms of what he accomplished historically.

He overhauled the justice system. He pretty much made the FLQ irrelevant. He beat the PQ in the referendum. He repatriated the constitution. He gave us the Charter. What else do you want?

Unless David Frum rewrites Canadian history, I doubt the historians will ever be kind to Mulroney. Thanks to NAFTA and GST the voter's reaction to his government and their policies eventually led to the demise of the Progressive Conservatives.

 

I agree that history will judge Mulroney as a very good PM. The US is the only industrialized nation without a value added tax and ultimately NAFTA was needed for the country.

The problem I have with PET is the legacy that he left. Official bilingualism is an unneeded mistake, government pushed multiculturalism as well.

The continual downplaying of the heavy handedness of invoking the War Measures Act is something I just can't reconcile. I did not live through it so maybe I just can't appreciate the need for it but in my view it was not something you invoke in a democracy.

Throw in the NEP, his middle finger to the west and his disenfranchisement of Quebec and he did more to to wreck the country than bring it together.

Brian Mulroney would have never let himself be made a cuckold on the world stage.