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This spring I ran into ex-McClelland and Stewart publisher Doug Gibson at a Toronto gathering of environmentalists, one of whom was an author of his. During the ensuing conversation, the subject of Pierre Trudeau’s youthful memoirs came up, and Gibson expressed his dismay that Trudeau had permitted the writings on which they’re based to be included in the material he deposited within the National Archive of Canada at the end of his life. When we spoke the rumours were already flying-mostly out of Quebec-that Trudeau’s memoir demonstrated that in his youth he had ideas which didn’t exactly coincide with the federalist Trudeau Canadians know and either revere or loathe. In the years before the end of the Second World War, according to the rumours, the father of our constitution was a proto-fascist, anti-Semitic separatist busily plotting ways to take Quebec out of Canada and out of the anti-fascist alliance fighting Nazi Germany. Gibson was clearly bothered by these disclosures, and as the book’s publisher (he now edits his own paperback imprint at M&S, and seems happy to have left management to do what drew him to book publishing in the first place), he was confirming that they were true.
I pointed out to him that Quebecois luminaries like Lysiane Gagnon would be all too willing to do what they could to discredit Trudeau (she was “extremely shocked”), and I argued, without having seen the book, that this simply meant that Trudeau possessed the capacity to evolve. I also noted that nearly all of us have had funny ideas while we were young. I believed in the inevitability of an American invasion of Canada during the late 1960s, and I demonstrated the sincerity of my belief by buying a hunting rifle so I could defend our borders. It was a foolish belief, and I changed it when I understood the world better. What’s the problem?
But as I reran the conversation in the days that followed, I was reminded of one of the most important lessons I learned in university from Robin Blaser: that competent intellectuals can not permit themselves to blame thinkers for not knowing, say, in 1941, what was uncovered only in the decade that followed. Context, in other words, is not an optional parameter unless you’re training to be a Mullah. Equally important, it is poor intellectual method to be blaming people in the past for not agreeing with whatever now happens to be swirling around our dopey heads as received wisdom.
I think Gibson was worried that any revelations about Trudeau’s wacky post-adolescent ideas would undermine his reputation and discredit federalism. And given that our universities have by now degraded the conditions of knowledge sufficiently to make common practice of judging the past by present standards (don’t get me started on intellectual Mullahism that has become a non-denominational vice in Academia), his concern is legitimate.
The Nemni biography, now in print in William Johnson’s translation, offers a clearly sympathetic view of Trudeau as a privileged young French Canadian growing into and through his Jesuit intellectual training, which valued order and obedience over liberty. Did young Trudeau hold immoderate views? Yes, of course, particularly in terms of today’s values. But we should remember that until Trudeau himself helped to transform Quebec in the 2nd decade after World War II, the province was a closed society run by the Catholic church and a wealthy oligarchy of self-serving xenophobes. Was it a hotbed of anti-Semitic near fascists? Yes, but only in degree compared to the rest of the country. Quebec’s hostile response to conscription during both World Wars is surprising only to those who don’t understand the province’s sentimental connection to France began with de Gaulle’s notorious 1967 declaration of solidarity with Quebec separatism. In the first half of the 20th century, France was everything Quebec’s theocratic elite despised: a liberal republic, cosmopolitan and politically chaotic-hardly the ideal of censorious Jesuit dreams. Pierre Trudeau would have had to be autistic not to have picked up those views.
Yet if Trudeau was immoderate, he was not quite a fool. He read well beyond the prescribed Jesuit canon, took copious notes, and made discriminating judgements. For instance, a 1941 memoir entry, concerning the drawbacks of democracy cites “ignorance, credulity, intolerance, hatred for superiority, the cult of incompetence, an excess of equality, versatility, the passions of the crowd, the envy of individuals.” Those are the weaknesses of democracy, past and present. Then there are its virtues, the loyalty to which, without an understanding of the weaknesses, is merely sentimental faith, itself a dangerous kind of extremism we’re drowning in today.
The authors’ portrait of Trudeau is of a young man lodged securely in the values of his time and society. Even then, his intellectual energy and precision of mind prepared him-perhaps forced him-to move beyond its limitations. When he reached Harvard at the end of the war, the transformation to more cosmopolitan views was predictable, and not long in coming. In reality, the Nemni biography has provided a further texture to Trudeau’s greatness. It is a book worthy of our close attention.
Brian Fawcett (Books in Canada)
-- Books in Canada
I pointed out to him that Quebecois luminaries like Lysiane Gagnon would be all too willing to do what they could to discredit Trudeau (she was “extremely shocked”), and I argued, without having seen the book, that this simply meant that Trudeau possessed the capacity to evolve. I also noted that nearly all of us have had funny ideas while we were young. I believed in the inevitability of an American invasion of Canada during the late 1960s, and I demonstrated the sincerity of my belief by buying a hunting rifle so I could defend our borders. It was a foolish belief, and I changed it when I understood the world better. What’s the problem?
But as I reran the conversation in the days that followed, I was reminded of one of the most important lessons I learned in university from Robin Blaser: that competent intellectuals can not permit themselves to blame thinkers for not knowing, say, in 1941, what was uncovered only in the decade that followed. Context, in other words, is not an optional parameter unless you’re training to be a Mullah. Equally important, it is poor intellectual method to be blaming people in the past for not agreeing with whatever now happens to be swirling around our dopey heads as received wisdom.
I think Gibson was worried that any revelations about Trudeau’s wacky post-adolescent ideas would undermine his reputation and discredit federalism. And given that our universities have by now degraded the conditions of knowledge sufficiently to make common practice of judging the past by present standards (don’t get me started on intellectual Mullahism that has become a non-denominational vice in Academia), his concern is legitimate.
The Nemni biography, now in print in William Johnson’s translation, offers a clearly sympathetic view of Trudeau as a privileged young French Canadian growing into and through his Jesuit intellectual training, which valued order and obedience over liberty. Did young Trudeau hold immoderate views? Yes, of course, particularly in terms of today’s values. But we should remember that until Trudeau himself helped to transform Quebec in the 2nd decade after World War II, the province was a closed society run by the Catholic church and a wealthy oligarchy of self-serving xenophobes. Was it a hotbed of anti-Semitic near fascists? Yes, but only in degree compared to the rest of the country. Quebec’s hostile response to conscription during both World Wars is surprising only to those who don’t understand the province’s sentimental connection to France began with de Gaulle’s notorious 1967 declaration of solidarity with Quebec separatism. In the first half of the 20th century, France was everything Quebec’s theocratic elite despised: a liberal republic, cosmopolitan and politically chaotic-hardly the ideal of censorious Jesuit dreams. Pierre Trudeau would have had to be autistic not to have picked up those views.
Yet if Trudeau was immoderate, he was not quite a fool. He read well beyond the prescribed Jesuit canon, took copious notes, and made discriminating judgements. For instance, a 1941 memoir entry, concerning the drawbacks of democracy cites “ignorance, credulity, intolerance, hatred for superiority, the cult of incompetence, an excess of equality, versatility, the passions of the crowd, the envy of individuals.” Those are the weaknesses of democracy, past and present. Then there are its virtues, the loyalty to which, without an understanding of the weaknesses, is merely sentimental faith, itself a dangerous kind of extremism we’re drowning in today.
The authors’ portrait of Trudeau is of a young man lodged securely in the values of his time and society. Even then, his intellectual energy and precision of mind prepared him-perhaps forced him-to move beyond its limitations. When he reached Harvard at the end of the war, the transformation to more cosmopolitan views was predictable, and not long in coming. In reality, the Nemni biography has provided a further texture to Trudeau’s greatness. It is a book worthy of our close attention.
Brian Fawcett (Books in Canada)
-- Books in Canada
Book Description
This book shines a light of devastating clarity on French-Canadian society in the 1930s and 1940s, when young elites were raised to be pro-fascist, and democratic and liberal were terms of criticism. The model leaders to be admired were good Catholic dictators like Mussolini, Salazar in Portugal, Franco in Spain, and especially Pétain, collaborator with the Nazis in Vichy France. There were even demonstrations against Jews who were demonstrating against what the Nazis were doing in Germany.
Trudeau, far from being the rebel that other biographers have claimed, embraced this ideology. At his elite school, Brébeuf, he was a model student, the editor of the school magazine, and admired by the staff and his fellow students. But the fascist ideas and the people he admired – even when the war was going on, as late as 1944 – included extremists so terrible that at the war’s end they were shot. And then there’s his manifesto and his plan to stage a revolution against les Anglais.
This is astonishing material – and it’s all demonstrably true – based on personal papers of Trudeau that the authors were allowed to access after his death.What they have found has astounded and distressed them, but they both agree that the truth must be published.
Translated from the forthcoming French edition by William Johnson, this explosive book is sure to hit the headlines.
Trudeau, far from being the rebel that other biographers have claimed, embraced this ideology. At his elite school, Brébeuf, he was a model student, the editor of the school magazine, and admired by the staff and his fellow students. But the fascist ideas and the people he admired – even when the war was going on, as late as 1944 – included extremists so terrible that at the war’s end they were shot. And then there’s his manifesto and his plan to stage a revolution against les Anglais.
This is astonishing material – and it’s all demonstrably true – based on personal papers of Trudeau that the authors were allowed to access after his death.What they have found has astounded and distressed them, but they both agree that the truth must be published.
Translated from the forthcoming French edition by William Johnson, this explosive book is sure to hit the headlines.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Biographers Paint Surprising Portrait of Young Trudeau,
By
This review is from: Young Trudeau: 1919-1944: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada (Paperback)
Widely revered and reviled as Canada's fifteenth prime minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau (1919-2000) cast "a silhouette sublime across the canvas of his time." Despite this notoriety, there have been few detailed examinations of his formative years. In Young Trudeau, the first volume of a three-volume intellectual biography, Max and Monique Nemni attempt to fill this historical void. Although their effort contains some flaws, the coauthors contribute to a more expansive understanding of Trudeau's political philosophy.Unfortunately, this book has been overshadowed by Citizen of the World, the excellent first volume of a biography written by John English, which describes Trudeau's life from his birth to his election as federal Liberal Party leader. By concentrating exclusively on his early years, the coauthors of Young Trudeau are more detailed in documenting and analyzing the conflicting intellectual currents that affected the future prime minister's educational evolution. Max Nemni, a political science professor, and his wife, Monique Nemni, a linguistics professor, served as editors (1995-2000) of Cite Libre, a magazine co-founded by Pierre Trudeau in 1950 during Quebec's Quiet Revolution. Trudeau befriended the coauthors, and gave them access to his private papers, although this is not an authorized biography. The two professors also consulted extensive secondary sources that are discussed in the endnotes. The major focus of this book's content is a study of Trudeau's twenty-five year socialization process in the religious, political, social, and economic context of French-Catholic Quebec from his birth to his departure for Harvard University in the fall of 1944. Contrary to the consensus of earlier biographers that Trudeau was a born rebel, the coauthors prove convincingly that he was a conformist who integrated into his social environment, shared its fundamental values, and was a model of Quebec Jesuit education. Far from being the reluctant leader, Trudeau was preparing for political office during his youth as a member of a French Canadian Catholic elite at Brebeuf College. Because of the immense suffering caused by the Great Depression, many political philosophers challenged the established social order. Some elements of corporatist theory were adopted by fascist movements in Italy, Spain, and other countries. As an enthusiastic young reader, Trudeau expressed naive support for certain radical ideas that were popular in Quebec. Surprisingly, he advocated the separation of Quebec from Canada, and its transformation into an independent, Catholic, and French state. He was involved in composing a manifesto for a French Canadian nationalist revolution as a member of a secretive group known as "L.X." Shortly before leaving for Harvard, Trudeau began to move away from this immature political philosophy toward economic liberalism, Canadian federalism, and the personalism of French Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain. After World War II, Maritain served as France's Ambassador to the Vatican, was a close adviser to Giovanni Battista Montini (the future Pope Paul VI), and influenced the philosophy of Pope John Paul II. In addition to its many strengths, this biography contains occasional weaknesses. The thesis that young Trudeau was a conformist is not original. In the Foreword to Against the Current (1996), Trudeau stated that he had been a conventional thinker in his youth who eagerly received knowledge from his parents, friends, teachers, and the Church. The coauthors wait until page 81 to acknowledge this important admission. Second, although Trudeau praised certain aspects of radical philosophies, this did not mean that he totally embraced these philosophies, or approved of how they were subsequently twisted by dictatorships. Third, in the absence of direct historical evidence, the coauthors sometimes ascribe specific opinions and actions to Trudeau by inference, extension, or association with others. For example, they claim at page 254 that Trudeau must have participated in anti-conscription demonstrations because "university students were caught up in the frantic atmosphere of the times", and Trudeau's "opposition to the war reflected the views of everyone in his circle." Finally, the coauthors' outlook is sometimes affected by an anticlericalism emanating from the secularism of Quebec's Quiet Revolution. Trudeau has always been a study in contradiction: the reserved man who was the flamboyant leader; the millionaire's son who was the social democrat; the conservative Catholic who became a "cafeteria" Catholic; the civil libertarian who imposed the War Measures Act, and then entrenched the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; and now the quintessential Canadian federalist who had been a young Quebec separatist. Historians will continue to debate whether Trudeau was an unprincipled opportunist who loved power, or a dynamic leader who was a political visionary. Above all, this book demonstrates that Trudeau was engaged in a lifelong process of self-education which only death could end. The coauthors have written a focused study that provides detailed insights into the formative years of a gifted, flawed, and fascinating historical figure. As for the controversy caused by these recent revelations, the provocative Pierre would be pleased. In death - as in life - Trudeau makes us think.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Out of the Mouths of Babes and Sucklings,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Young Trudeau: 1919-1944: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada (Paperback)
This biography covers the first twenty-five years in the sheltered and somewhat privileged life of Pierre Eliot Trudeau as a young student growing up in Quebec during the Great Depression and WW II. While most studies on this famous Canadian quickly summarize this early stage of his life with only a cursory mention of his being born into wealth, of having bi-cultural parentage, acquiring a strict Jesuit education, and travelling widely, the authors of this work take a different tack. With the aid of Trudeau's personal papers, they do some serious probing into what appears to be some significant social and political undercurrents at work in his very active and somewhat impressionable mind. First, the reader learns that the young Trudeau was definitely a prisoner of a very authoritarian French-Canadian culture that viewed the church and the state as indivisibly one. Though a serious reader and deep thinker, Pierre always deferred to the church when it to reading books from the proscribed list. His teachers and mentors were forever inculcating him with the notion that the church and state were partners in a holy cause to make Quebec culturally strong and politically independent of the rest of Canada. Anything outside its borders was deemed potentially heathen, communistic and dangerously anti-French. Then, we see Trudeau working very hard in school to understand his role in a society that was trying to distinguish itself as separate and distinct from a modern republican France within the context of an international war, even if that meant allying with fascist causes that identified with the likes of Petain, Mussolini and Hitler. As Trudeau moved on to the University of Montreal, we see a young man taking up this and other reactionary causes with a revolutionary zeal to write, debate and promote his vision of a stronger Quebec. As the war ended and the international landscape dramatically changed, so did Trudeau's narrow perspective on his homeland. The next book in this series will pick up the story with him moving on to Harvard, a surprising and daring move by a Quebecker and son of the Church. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to see where Trudeau started his journey to transform Canadian society.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Dangerous Young Man,
By
This review is from: Young Trudeau: 1919-1944: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada (Paperback)
Anyone who thinks Pierre Elliott Trudeau is a hero of Canada, a Canadian nationalist or even a democrat will get a rude shock from this well-researched book. What it shows is that Trudeau was a millionaire dilettante during WWII who ducked military service while he plotted with friends for the violent overthrow of the government. The reason for such a coup? He wanted to establish a Catholic, fascist state modeled on the one in Vichy, France.There is also plenty of grist for anyone who wonders where Trudeau's Marxist and internationalist leanings came from. For those of us who deplore what Canada has become since Trudeau introduced top-down, court-made law and replaced bottom-up, democratic, Parliamentary law; here is all the evidence we need. The problem with this book is that most Canadians have never heard of it; never read it. If they had, and if it had come out earlier, our country would be a different, and much better place.
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