|
3 Wisemen
| Trudeaumania |
October Crisis |
Bilingualism |
Petro Canada |
72 Super Series |
Wage & Price
Controls | 1976 Olympics
| PQ come to Power |
Interlude |
Western Alienation
| 1980 Referendum |
The Constitution |
Changing of the
Guard As
Pearson struggled along, in 1964 and 65, with his
minority government he had decided that a reinvigorated
Liberal party would require two changes to strengthen it
and potentially gain enough votes to attain a majority
in the new Federal election. The first change was a
secret which he would keep for a few years and was a
change in leadership. A new Liberal leader could
stimulate new and significant interest in the party and
generate additional support. The second of these changes
was to bring stronger representation from Quebec into
the party which could impress the province with it's
quality and voice in policy formulation in the Canadian
government.
Pearson had tried to
recruit Jean Marchand to run in the 1963 election but
Marchand had decided to wait. He had been a strong
supporter of the workers in Quebec and along with his
two trusted friends, Gerard Pelletier and Pierre
Trudeau. The three felt that together they could make a
difference in developing a new presence in Ottawa which
might counter the nationalistic trends that were
developing in Quebec.
Gerard Pelletier met Pierre Trudeau while
studying in Paris in the late 40's. He began a career as
a reporter and worked for Le Devoir newspaper as a
journalist. His reputation grew quickly and by the early
60's he took a position with Le Presse in Montreal as
Editor in Chief. Le Presse was North America's largest
daily French language newspaper and in that role he
welded great influence over Quebec public opinion and
invited Marchand and Trudeau to contribute articles to
the paper. He and Trudeau were two of the founding
members of Cite Libre, which was a French Canadian
intellectual journal.
Pearson recognized the
growing power of the nationalist Quebecois movement, the
dangers of the FLQ and the threat to Canadian Federalism
of governing without a credible French Canadian
component in his party. All three won election in Quebec
in 1965 and were given high profile positions in the new
Pearson government. The were named the 3 wisemen by the
English media and the Les trois colombes (The
three doves) by the French media. The concept of
rotating the Liberal leadership between a French and
then an English leader had arisen with the election of
Laurier in the 1990's and one of the 3 wise men was
expected to challenge for that leadership if Pearson
stepped down.
The popular wisdom was
that Marchand would be the one who would run for the
leadership of the party but he claimed he was not as
acceptable to English Canada as Trudeau would be an
refused to run while encouraging Trudeau to do so.
Trudeau eventually decided to run and won the leadership
and along with Marchand and Pelletier changed the
political landscape of Quebec and Canada forever. |
