The 1968 federal election was the first for the new Progressive Conservative leader, Robert Stanfield. Like other leaders before him, Stanfield had a Quebec lieutenant, in this case, Marcel Faribault. Westerners were suspicious of Faribault.At a candidate forum in the rural Alberta riding of Crowfoot, arch-conservative MP Jack Horner was asked about Faribault. Himself a bit skeptical of the fellow, Horner replied, “I don’t know much about Faribault, but at least I could say this: that he’d fought for our country in the last war. Need I say more?” The audience went quiet.It was sufficient that Faribault had served in World War Two to get the respect of Albertans. Why? Because the new Liberal leader and prime minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, had refused to serve. When war broke out in 1939, Trudeau was of military age, fit, and healthy. But he did not want to fight for Canada. He thought it was someone else’s war.Even some of Trudeau’s admirers seem ashamed of his actions and statements about the war. A few years ago, John English, a former history professor at the University of Waterloo and also a former Liberal MP, wrote a favourable two-volume biography of Pierre Trudeau. In the first volume, Citizen of the World, Trudeau’s attitude and response to the war are explained.When war broke out, English writes curtly, “Pierre could have enlisted, but he did not.”It wasn’t just that he didn’t enlist. He openly opposed Canada’s participation. Indeed, English notes, “Trudeau’s virulent opposition to the war was publicly expressed.”.In November 1942, during a federal by-election in Montreal, Trudeau actively campaigned for an anti-conscription, Quebec nationalist candidate. At a major campaign event, Trudeau gave a fiery speech that was subsequently published in the newspaper, Le Devoir. According to English, in this speech, Trudeau “minimized the Nazi threat” and stated that “the government had irresponsibly declared war even though North America faced no direct threat of an invasion.”Of course, the Second World War led to hardships for millions of Canadians. Coming from a wealthy background, however, Pierre Trudeau lived a life of ease. “Throughout this period, Trudeau lived at the family home, with its chauffeur and servants, while denouncing the bourgeois life.”Perceptively, English adds, “It was easier to be anti-bourgeois when your circumstances were thoroughly bourgeois.”The basic point is this. While Canadian soldiers were fighting and dying overseas, “Trudeau and his associates stood on separate ground, avoiding the battles in Europe while furiously debating what their future as francophone professionals would be in a modern North America.”.In a sense, it’s even worse than that. Not only was his privileged life much easier than most people in Canada at the time, but Trudeau also “swam in the same stream as others, opposing conscription, favouring Vichy [i.e., the German puppet government of southern France] and Pétain [its collaborationist leader], outrageously equating Hitler’s Reich with British policy towards Quebec, and even contemplating and plotting Quebec independence.”This is shameful. While hundreds of thousands of Canadians served in the military, risking their lives for their country, Pierre Trudeau lived at home in ease, advocating beliefs that essentially opposed the war effort.Subsequently, after entering public life, Trudeau would be questioned about his wartime efforts. But even an admirer like John English would have to admit that, “Without doubt, Trudeau would later deceive interviewers who asked him where he was and what he believed when the Second World War was fought.”Pierre Trudeau did not support Canada in fighting Nazi Germany during World War Two. He refused to serve in the military and campaigned against conscription. Thousands of Canadians died fighting for the freedoms of people like Trudeau while he lived at home in comfort. This is the hero of the Liberal Party and Laurentian Canada.
