The best Trudeau

[buritobr]

Father and son were canadians PM

[Lord Halifax]

How is that even a question? It's almost as absurd as making people choose between Mario and Andrew Cuomo.

[😥]

Pierre, obviously

[Cassius]

Jr is basically just a sh*t version of Sr. Truly the sequel nobody wanted.

[Mr. Smith]

Pierre est le maître du Canada.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Justin is blander, but Pierre had worse moments. If the latter had run a developing country, he'd have declared himself dictator for life.

[bagelman]

Justin is blander, but Pierre had worse moments. If the latter had run a developing country, he'd have declared himself dictator for life.

Also would've appointed his son as successor, which is worse.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Justin is blander, but Pierre had worse moments. If the latter had run a developing country, he'd have declared himself dictator for life.

Also would've appointed his son as successor, which is worse.

Papa Doc vs Baby Doc vibes

[Estrella]

It's Zénon Trudeau, actually.

Justin Trudeau voted 3rd best Prime Minister named Trudeau

[brucejoel99]

Say what you may about Pierre, but the man undeniably had a pair of steel balls on him, what with patriating the Constitution (&, not to mention, having dared to mock the Queen during the process) & also throwing the book at domestic terrorists without so much as a 2nd thought, whereas Justin more-or-less just panders to public opinion without much - if any - thought.

[mileslunn]

Not a fan of either but would say Pierre.  You could strongly dislike him and many did, but you couldn't deny that he was very smart and capable.  By contrast Trudeau got to where he was largely on his last name.  Essentially he has all his father's bad policies and arrogance but without his intelligence.  My late Grandpa said Pierre Trudeau was worst PM ever, but I kind of think if he were still alive today, he would say Justin was worse. 

[Benjamin Frank]

Say what you may about Pierre, but the man undeniably had a pair of steel balls on him, what with patriating the Constitution (&, not to mention, having dared to mock the Queen during the process) & also throwing the book at domestic terrorists without so much as a 2nd thought, whereas Justin more-or-less just panders to public opinion without much - if any - thought.

He didn't really throw the book at the FLQ, he allowed them to be deported to Cuba.  Most of them came back to Canada a few years later.

[Benjamin Frank]

Justin Trudeau's Liberals have arguably passed more consequential legislation in its first term than Pierre Trudeau did from 1968-1979.  

The most consequential act of Trudeau's first term was the changes to the legal code started under Attorney General Trudeau and completed under John Turner.  However, those pieces of legislation were already proposed under Prime Minister Lester Pearson.

Trudeau's most consequential legislation from 1968-1972 was probably the Official Languages Act, which has turned out to be pretty insignificant.

The other change was the significant expansion of the Prime Minister's office, which was not actually what Pierre Trudeau set out to do.  His initial idea, contrary to those here who refer to him as a would be dictator, was 'participatory democracy.'  

Trudeau found though that that just created a lot of make work for consultants and that the public really wasn't interested and also, as John Lennon said "life is what happens while you're making plans."

Of course, during the first term, Trudeau did stare down the FLQ, but the imposition of the War Measures Act was clearly an overreaction.

In the second term with the NDP holding the balance of power, the Liberals passed the Foreign Investment Review Act which accomplished nothing until it was repealed by the Mulroney Progressive Conservatives, and nationalized PetroCanada, which quickly became unpopular.

They did, under the insistence of the NDP, increase various social programs.

In their third term from 1974-1979 the Liberals mainly focused on inflation and energy policy and separatism in Quebec with the election of the P.Q.

After announcing he was stepping down as party leader in 1979, even Pierre Trudeau acknowledged he had hadn't accomplished much as Prime Minister.

In contrast, in their first term, the Trudeau Liberals brought in the children's benefit, which united a bunch of disparate programs (and cut poverty significantly although whether it is fiscally structurally sustainable is in question), legalized marijuana, brought in the carbon tax (while buying a pipeline) and reformed the Senate.

It was Trudeau's own feeling that he had been a failed Prime Minister that caused him to focus so intently on patriating the Constitution (with a Charter of Rights and Freedoms) rather than on the immediate problems of the very painful recession of 1981-1983.  

So, sure, looking back nearly 40 years later, one can argue that this took guts and was a major achievement, but, at the time, it made him extremely unpopular.