Federalism and the French Canadians

A bit of personal perspective on this: I grew up in a fairly politically aware family, and while I was alive while Trudeau was prime minister, I was too young to really have any personal memories about that time. So all of my knowledge of Trudeau comes second hand.

Growing up, there were two basic truisms about Trudeau that I was taught: my Albertan family taught me that he was a traitor to Canada for selling out the West to benefit Quebec; after I moved to Ontario, I was taught that people in Quebec thought he was a traitor to Quebec for the October Crisis. An interesting mix of perspectives.

Federalism and the French Canadians comes before all of that, but context is key to understanding the writing here, I think. Trudeau's later actions stand in stark contrast to his decentralizing, “provinces first” attitude displayed here, and it's also necessary to remember that he was writing before both the Quiet Revolution and Reaganism/Thatcherism, which make some of his ideas seem a bit outdated.

While some of the ideas might seem outdated, a lot of them are depressingly current - the sections on Quebecois alienation and on the provincial government there seem like they could be applied today to most provinces, for example.