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Some
Thoughts
By & About
A Great Canadian
"A country, after all, is
not something you build as the pharaohs built the pyramids, and
leave standing there to defy eternity. A country is something that
is built every day out of certain basic shared values. And so it is
in the hands of every Canadian to determine how well and wisely we
shall build the country of the future."
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| "Who
speaks for Canada? Our strength lies in our national will to live
and work together as a people. Weaken that will, that spirit of
community, and you weaken Canada. Weaken Canada, and you damage all
the parts, no matter how rich some of those parts may be. My
friends, you and I must stand up for Canada, and we must see that
there is a national government that has the courage to do so as
well."
"But this is not the end. He left politics in '84.
But he came back for Meech. He came back for Charlottetown.
He came back to remind us of who we are
and what we're all capable of."
"What a magician this Mr. [Brian] Mulroney is, and what a sly
fox! ... In a single master stroke, this clever negotiator has thus
managed to approve the call for Special Status (Jean Lesage and
Claude Ryan), the call for Two Nations (Robert Stanfield), the call
for a Canadian Board of Directors made up of 11 first ministers
(Allan Blakeney and Marcel Faribeault), and the call for a
Community of Communities (Joe Clark). He has not quite succeeded in
achieving sovereignty-association, but he has put Canada on the
fast track for getting there."
"But he won't be coming back any more.
It's all up to us, all of us, now."
- Justin
Trudeau, Oct. 3, 2000
It always surprises me, although after all these years it really
shouldn't, when I hear some "eminent" authority
re-interpret history according to his or her own agenda in
disregard of the facts. If historians don't get it right, how can
we expect the average person to understand what is really
happening?
In the following few paragraphs (if I ever get around to
them) I want to remind
myself of what was really happening when Pierre Elliott Trudeau
took some of those decisions that certain people who should, and
do, know better like to denigrate.
- more to come -
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