The Canadian politics of 40-plus years ago sounds an awful lot like today. That becomes clear when reading the 2009 book I’d Trade Him Again by Peter Pocklington with Terry McConnell and J’Lyn Nye..The car dealer turned sports-club owner was a juggernaut of entrepreneurial success in the 1970s, but his political insight and impact deserves mention. His motivation began in 1976 when Pocklington and his wife Eva hosted Pierre Trudeau at a ski resort they owned near Kamloops..Trudeau had just gotten back from Cuba. Pocklington recalled how the prime minister expressed his high regard for Fidel Castro, even though the dictator “had a keen interest in my wife.”.He even told Pocklington, “I will guide the ship of state with such skill, the destination will not be known until we arrive.”.Pocklington said he “so much despised Trudeau, not the man, but his thoughts, his Maoism,” and realized, “I’ve got to do something about this SOB.”.His convictions grew deeper after the National Energy Program caused “the almost complete collapse of Alberta’s economy” while the prime lending rate was enormously high..“That showed me how politicians can destroy what businessmen create, including the jobs people need to survive. Without a strong economy we end up in a dictatorship, that’s how critical it was to me,” Pocklington said..That sounds familiar. Go on..“I was pretty browned off with the government. They made the mistake of printing too much money and spending it like drunken sailors. That caused inflation. Then, they tried to fix the problem by hiking interest rates. All of a sudden, the prime rate was 18.5%, but they accepted no responsibility at all for what they were doing to hard-working business people,” Pocklington explained..“These idiots we elected had absolutely no idea what they were doing to the free-market economy, and that really upset me. I remember thinking it would get to the point where society was going to break down unless the government got its act together.”.The federal deficits bothered Pocklington so much, he tried to take matters into his own hands..“That’s why I took a crack at politics. ‘If not me,’ I asked myself, ‘then who?’”.Not Progressive Conservative Leader Joe Clark, apparently, despite a brief stint in government in 1979-80..“I thought Clark was a disaster,” Pocklington said..“He was not even conservative, and he certainly wasn’t a libertarian. He was as socialist as Trudeau was, he just didn’t let on.”.Pocklington paid for two polls on Canadians on who they would vote for between Joe Clark and John Turner..Turner won both times and Pocklington passed the poll results around. Clark called a leadership race after getting only 66.9% support and Pocklington challenged him..Clark invited Pocklington for breakfast to ask, “Peter, why are you doing this?”.The entrepreneur told Clark, “I love Canada, I want to make it great…I want to change it. And if you want to change it, Joe, you’re going to have to change your ways. You’re going to have to become a conservative.”.On Nov. 4, 1982, Pocklington espoused his policies to the Empire Club in Toronto..“I’m not here to bash the man [Trudeau], but his basic philosophy of state socialism,” Pocklington told the audience. “His solutions are bankrupting us.”.Alas, the captain had stealthily lead the good ship Canada on a bad course, one only apparent when it got to the destination..“Thirteen years ago, Trudeau went on national television in a major press conference to talk to the Canadian people about inflation and the country’s financial future..He said then, we would be on the way to financial disaster if nothing were done to bring spending under control. To spend vast sums on welfare, education, and other programs while allowing inflation to continue would merely place…[many] Canadians on a treadmill they could not escape..“The prime minister also committed his government to a substantial cut in the federal civil service..Instead, Pocklington said, government spending had increased 400% and the federal civil service had doubled to 300,000 people..“In the last 14 years, our government has created a collectivist or statist society where rights and privileges, freedoms and responsibilities, are being destroyed for the sake of rules, regulations, and bureaucratic control,” Pocklington explained..“[T]he Liberal Party has destroyed itself west of Ontario and is headed to the far left of the political spectrum–in fact, left of the NDP platform of 1968.”.Canada, Pocklington said, went from having a strong currency and plenty of foreign investment, energy, and jobs, with low inflation to a sinking ship near bankruptcy..“The government has little regard for our basic liberties and no respect for the concept of private initiative, private opportunity, or private ownership. What this government understands is state socialism, a form of government in which government runs virtually everything and what it doesn’t run, it cripples by over-regulation..“In effect, they are trying to change Canada, and we must ask ourselves, ‘Are we going to let them?’”.In round one of the 1983 PC leadership contest, Clark got 1,091 votes, while Brian Mulroney got 874. Pocklington was sixth of eight candidates with 102 votes behind fourth-place Michael Wilson with 144 supporters..The two walked to Mulroney’s camp, starting his momentum to victory. Mulroney secured the leadership with 54% of the vote on the fourth ballot..Mulroney later asked Pocklington what role he wanted in the federal government..Pocklington said he wanted a commission on taxation, something he claimed Mulroney pledged to do, but Mulroney later said became unnecessary after introducing the GST..Yet, some of Pocklington’s vision was fulfilled more clearly, such as shedding crown corporations and embracing free trade with the U.S..We should take heart..Today, Canada is led by another Trudeau doing eerily similar things to his father. Canada has another politician pushing the right ideas despite little support, Maxime Bernier. And, once again, a more sensible Conservative leader has replaced someone whose conservatism was in doubt..Could a return to reason be just ahead?
The Canadian politics of 40-plus years ago sounds an awful lot like today. That becomes clear when reading the 2009 book I’d Trade Him Again by Peter Pocklington with Terry McConnell and J’Lyn Nye..The car dealer turned sports-club owner was a juggernaut of entrepreneurial success in the 1970s, but his political insight and impact deserves mention. His motivation began in 1976 when Pocklington and his wife Eva hosted Pierre Trudeau at a ski resort they owned near Kamloops..Trudeau had just gotten back from Cuba. Pocklington recalled how the prime minister expressed his high regard for Fidel Castro, even though the dictator “had a keen interest in my wife.”.He even told Pocklington, “I will guide the ship of state with such skill, the destination will not be known until we arrive.”.Pocklington said he “so much despised Trudeau, not the man, but his thoughts, his Maoism,” and realized, “I’ve got to do something about this SOB.”.His convictions grew deeper after the National Energy Program caused “the almost complete collapse of Alberta’s economy” while the prime lending rate was enormously high..“That showed me how politicians can destroy what businessmen create, including the jobs people need to survive. Without a strong economy we end up in a dictatorship, that’s how critical it was to me,” Pocklington said..That sounds familiar. Go on..“I was pretty browned off with the government. They made the mistake of printing too much money and spending it like drunken sailors. That caused inflation. Then, they tried to fix the problem by hiking interest rates. All of a sudden, the prime rate was 18.5%, but they accepted no responsibility at all for what they were doing to hard-working business people,” Pocklington explained..“These idiots we elected had absolutely no idea what they were doing to the free-market economy, and that really upset me. I remember thinking it would get to the point where society was going to break down unless the government got its act together.”.The federal deficits bothered Pocklington so much, he tried to take matters into his own hands..“That’s why I took a crack at politics. ‘If not me,’ I asked myself, ‘then who?’”.Not Progressive Conservative Leader Joe Clark, apparently, despite a brief stint in government in 1979-80..“I thought Clark was a disaster,” Pocklington said..“He was not even conservative, and he certainly wasn’t a libertarian. He was as socialist as Trudeau was, he just didn’t let on.”.Pocklington paid for two polls on Canadians on who they would vote for between Joe Clark and John Turner..Turner won both times and Pocklington passed the poll results around. Clark called a leadership race after getting only 66.9% support and Pocklington challenged him..Clark invited Pocklington for breakfast to ask, “Peter, why are you doing this?”.The entrepreneur told Clark, “I love Canada, I want to make it great…I want to change it. And if you want to change it, Joe, you’re going to have to change your ways. You’re going to have to become a conservative.”.On Nov. 4, 1982, Pocklington espoused his policies to the Empire Club in Toronto..“I’m not here to bash the man [Trudeau], but his basic philosophy of state socialism,” Pocklington told the audience. “His solutions are bankrupting us.”.Alas, the captain had stealthily lead the good ship Canada on a bad course, one only apparent when it got to the destination..“Thirteen years ago, Trudeau went on national television in a major press conference to talk to the Canadian people about inflation and the country’s financial future..He said then, we would be on the way to financial disaster if nothing were done to bring spending under control. To spend vast sums on welfare, education, and other programs while allowing inflation to continue would merely place…[many] Canadians on a treadmill they could not escape..“The prime minister also committed his government to a substantial cut in the federal civil service..Instead, Pocklington said, government spending had increased 400% and the federal civil service had doubled to 300,000 people..“In the last 14 years, our government has created a collectivist or statist society where rights and privileges, freedoms and responsibilities, are being destroyed for the sake of rules, regulations, and bureaucratic control,” Pocklington explained..“[T]he Liberal Party has destroyed itself west of Ontario and is headed to the far left of the political spectrum–in fact, left of the NDP platform of 1968.”.Canada, Pocklington said, went from having a strong currency and plenty of foreign investment, energy, and jobs, with low inflation to a sinking ship near bankruptcy..“The government has little regard for our basic liberties and no respect for the concept of private initiative, private opportunity, or private ownership. What this government understands is state socialism, a form of government in which government runs virtually everything and what it doesn’t run, it cripples by over-regulation..“In effect, they are trying to change Canada, and we must ask ourselves, ‘Are we going to let them?’”.In round one of the 1983 PC leadership contest, Clark got 1,091 votes, while Brian Mulroney got 874. Pocklington was sixth of eight candidates with 102 votes behind fourth-place Michael Wilson with 144 supporters..The two walked to Mulroney’s camp, starting his momentum to victory. Mulroney secured the leadership with 54% of the vote on the fourth ballot..Mulroney later asked Pocklington what role he wanted in the federal government..Pocklington said he wanted a commission on taxation, something he claimed Mulroney pledged to do, but Mulroney later said became unnecessary after introducing the GST..Yet, some of Pocklington’s vision was fulfilled more clearly, such as shedding crown corporations and embracing free trade with the U.S..We should take heart..Today, Canada is led by another Trudeau doing eerily similar things to his father. Canada has another politician pushing the right ideas despite little support, Maxime Bernier. And, once again, a more sensible Conservative leader has replaced someone whose conservatism was in doubt..Could a return to reason be just ahead?
