Swearing-in and subsequent election As the new leader of the governing Liberals, Trudeau was sworn in as prime minister on April 20. Although the term of the Parliament was not due to expire until November 1970, Pearson's government had almost fallen before the leadership contest could even take place after a tax bill was voted down in Parliament, leading to much confusion over whether this counted as a
matter of confidence in the government.
Governor General Roland Michener ultimately ruled that it did not, and the government subsequently won an actual confidence motion, but the incident made it clear that the minority government Trudeau had inherited would not realistically last the full parliamentary term, and that he would soon need to call an early election in order to win a parliamentary majority. Trudeau eventually called this election for June 25, 1968. Trudeau's campaign benefited from an unprecedented wave of personal popularity called "
Trudeaumania", which saw him mobbed by throngs of youths. His main national opponents were
PC leader
Robert Stanfield and
NDP leader
Tommy Douglas, both popular figures who had been premiers of
Nova Scotia and
Saskatchewan respectively (albeit in Trudeau's native Quebec, the main competition to the Liberals was from the
Ralliement créditiste, led by
Réal Caouette). As a candidate, Trudeau espoused
participatory democracy as a means of making Canada a "
Just Society". He vigorously defended the newly implemented
universal health care and
regional development programs, as well as the recent reforms found in the Omnibus bill. On the eve of the election, during the annual
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade in Montreal, rioting
Quebec sovereigntists threw rocks and bottles at the grandstand where Trudeau was seated, chanting "Trudeau au poteau!" ("Trudeau to the stake!"). Rejecting the pleas of aides that he take cover, Trudeau stayed in his seat, facing the rioters, without any sign of fear. The image of the defiant Prime Minister impressed the public. The next day, Trudeau handily won the
1968 election with a strong
majority government; this was the Liberals' first majority since
1953.
Social policy Bilingualism and multiculturalism Trudeau's first major legislative push was implementing the majority of recommendations from Pearson's
Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism via the
Official Languages Act, which made French and English the co-equal official languages of the federal government. More controversial than the declaration (which was backed by the NDP and, with some opposition in caucus, the PCs) was the implementation of the Act's principles: between 1966 and 1976, the francophone proportion of the civil service and military doubled, causing alarm in some sections of anglophone Canada who felt they were being disadvantaged. Trudeau's Cabinet fulfilled Part IV of the Royal Commission's report by announcing a "
Multiculturalism Policy" on October 8, 1971. It was the first of its kind in the world, subsequently being emulated by several provinces such as Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba; even other countries, most notably Australia, which has had a similar history and immigration pattern, emulated the policy. Beyond the specifics of the policy itself, this action signalled an openness to the world and coincided with a more open immigration policy that Pearson had brought in. The policy recognized that while Canada was a country of two official languages, it recognized a plurality of cultures – "a multicultural policy within a bilingual framework". This annoyed public opinion in Quebec, which believed that it challenged Quebec's claim of Canada being a country of two nations.
Immigration During Pierre Trudeau's time as Prime Minister,
Canada's immigration levels were much lower and more stable, with total arrivals often in the tens of thousands annually. The period between 1968 and 1975 averaged over 165,000 newcomers annually, with a peak of 218,500 immigrants in 1974. Due to a weakening economy, the numbers declined, averaging around 114,000 newcomers from 1976 to 1984. Following the
Vietnam War, a refugee crisis was caused by the flight of the
boat people from Vietnam, as thousands of people, mostly ethnic Chinese, fled the country in makeshift boats across the
South China Sea, usually to the
British colony of Hong Kong. The Trudeau government was generous in granting asylum to the refugees. By 1980, Canada had accepted about 44,000 boat people, making it one of the top destinations for them.
Indigenous issues In 1969, Trudeau, along with his then-
Minister of Indian Affairs Jean Chrétien, proposed the
1969 White Paper (officially entitled "Statement of the Government of Canada on Indian policy"). The Paper proposed the general assimilation of First Nations into the Canadian body politic through the elimination of the
Indian Act and Indian status, the parcelling of reserve land to private owners, and the elimination of the
Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. The White Paper was widely seen as racist and an attack on Canada's indigenous peoples, and prompted the first major national mobilization of indigenous activists against the federal government's proposal, leading Trudeau to set aside the legislation.
Death penalty On July 14, 1976, after a long and emotional debate, Bill C-84 was passed by the House of Commons by a vote of 130 to 124, abolishing the
death penalty for all criminal offences (other than military offences) and instituting a life sentence without parole for 25 years for first-degree murder.
Quebec October Crisis Trudeau's first serious test as Prime Minister came during the
October Crisis of 1970, when a Marxist-influenced Quebec separatist group, the
Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), kidnapped British Trade Consul
James Cross at his residence on October 5. Five days later, the group also kidnapped Quebec Labour Minister
Pierre Laporte. Trudeau, with the acquiescence of Quebec Premier
Robert Bourassa, responded by invoking the
War Measures Act, which gave the government sweeping powers of arrest and detention without trial. Trudeau presented a determined public stance during the crisis; when questioned by
CBC Television journalist
Tim Ralfe regarding how far he would go to stop the violence, Trudeau answered, "
Just watch me". Laporte was found dead on October 17 in the trunk of a car. Five of the FLQ members were flown to
Cuba in 1970 as part of a deal in exchange for James Cross' life, although they eventually returned to Canada years later, where they served time in prison. Although Trudeau's response is still controversial and was opposed at the time as excessive by parliamentarians like Tommy Douglas and
David Lewis, it was met with only limited objections from the public.
Quebec provincial affairs After consultations with the provincial premiers, Trudeau agreed to attend a conference called by
British Columbia Premier W. A. C. Bennett to attempt to finally
patriate the
Canadian constitution. Negotiations between the provinces and Justice Minister
John Turner created a draft agreement, known as the
Victoria Charter, that entrenched a charter of rights, bilingualism, and a guarantee of a veto of constitutional amendments for Ontario and Quebec, as well as regional vetoes for
Western Canada and
Atlantic Canada, within the new constitution. The agreement was acceptable to the nine predominantly-English speaking provinces, but Quebec's premier Robert Bourassa requested two weeks to consult with his cabinet. After a strong backlash of popular opinion against the agreement in Quebec, Bourassa stated that Quebec would not accept it. Trudeau faced increasing challenges in Quebec, starting with bitter relations with Bourassa and his
Quebec Liberal government. Following a rise in the polls after the rejection of the Victoria Charter, the Quebec Liberals had taken a more confrontational approach with the federal government on the constitution,
French language laws, and the language of
air traffic control in Quebec. Trudeau responded with increasing anger at what he saw as nationalist provocations against Ottawa's bilingualism and constitutional initiatives, at times expressing his personal contempt for Bourassa. Partially in an attempt to shore up his support, Bourassa called a
surprise election in 1976 that resulted in
René Lévesque and the sovereigntist
Parti Québécois (PQ) winning a majority government. The PQ had chiefly campaigned on a "good government" platform, but promised a referendum on independence to be held within their first mandate. Trudeau and Lévesque had been personal rivals, with Trudeau's intellectualism contrasting with Lévesque's more working-class image. While Trudeau claimed to welcome the "clarity" provided by the PQ victory, the unexpected rise of the
Quebec sovereignty movement became, in his view, his biggest challenge. As the PQ began to take power, Trudeau faced the prolonged breakdown of his marriage, which the English-language press covered in lurid detail on a day-by-day basis. Trudeau's reserve was seen as dignified by contemporaries, and his poll numbers actually rose during the height of coverage, but aides felt the personal tensions left him uncharacteristically emotional and prone to outbursts.
Economic policy Trudeau's first government implemented many procedural reforms to make Parliament and the Liberal caucus meetings run more efficiently, significantly expanded the size and role of the Prime Minister's office, and substantially expanded social-welfare programs.
Deficit spending Trudeau's government ran large budget
deficits throughout its time in office. The government's
first budget in 1968 produced a deficit of $667 million, while the
1969 budget produced a surplus of $140 million. However, the
1970 budget (which produced a deficit of over $1 billion) marked the start of consecutive budget deficits run by the Trudeau government; the budget would not be
balanced until
1997. By the time Trudeau's first tenure ended in 1979, the deficit grew to $12 billion.
Social programs and spending In 1971, Trudeau's government greatly expanded
unemployment insurance, making coverage nearly universal as coverage for the Canadian labour force jumped to 96 percent from 75 percent. The system was sometimes called the 8/42, because one had to work for eight weeks (with at least 20 hours per week), and wait two weeks, to get benefits for the other 42 weeks of the year. This expansion also opened the UI program up to maternity, sickness, and retirement benefits, covered seasonal workers for the first time, and allowed mothers to receive up to 15 weeks of benefits if they had 20 or more insurable weeks. The reforms increased the maximum benefit period to 50 weeks, though the benefit duration was calculated using a complex formula depending on labour force participation and the regional and national unemployment rates. In 1977, the government simplified the benefit duration formula but introduced a variable entrance requirement dependent on the unemployment rate in the applicant's region; the changes also mandated that workers in areas with low unemployment regions work twice as long to be eligible for benefits as workers in high unemployment regions. The amendments saw the introduction the Rental Rehabilitation Assistance Program, which established that homeowners and occupants in low-income neighbourhoods could qualify for small grants to be used for home repair. Also introduced was the Assisted Home Ownership Program which allowed the
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to start providing grants and subsidized interest rates to low income families (though in 1978 an amendment discontinued the provision of grant money to these families, which led to a high incidence of defaults, and in turn, necessitated that the federal government provide financial assistance to the CMHC). The amendments saw the passage of the
Rent Supplement Act, which enabled the CMHC to partner with private landlords, cooperatives, and not-for-profit associations to provide affordable housing; in addition, the act saw the CMHC agree to fund the difference between market rental prices and rent prices geared to the specific occupant's income. Lastly, the Canada Rental Supply Program was introduced to provide interest-free loans for 15 years to developers who agreed to allocate a proportion of units toward social housing initiatives. In order to ensure that loans contributed to the provision of low income housing, the CMHC was restricted to giving loans amounting to $7,500 or less per unit. Legislation passed in November 1968 widened eligibility for farm credit, and in 1970 legislation was introduced aimed at improving compensation for merchant seamen and also to establish a right to maternity leave. In 1972, an Act was passed providing for the indexation of various pensions and allowances to the consumer price index. Certain eligibility requirements for receiving training allowances were also removed. One-pensioner couples benefited from a new Spouse's Allowance, while various improvements in superannuation arrangements and in family allowances were also carried out. The
registered home ownership savings plan (RHOSP) was introduced in the government's
November 1974 budget. Similar to
RRSPs, proceeds from the RHOSP could be received tax-free for either. a down payment for the acquisition of an owner-occupied dwelling or to buy furnitures for the dwelling (or the spouse's dwelling). Individuals who already owned a home (either owner-occupied or rented to another person) could not deduct RHOSP contributions. In 1976, Trudeau's government allowed for transfers of funds between the RHOSP (for instance to select a plan with better returns). In 1977, the government tightened the rules of the RHOSP (the reforms removed the purchase of furnitures from the list of usage allowed for tax-free use of RHOSP proceeds starting in 1978; disallowed deductible contributions for a taxpayer whose spouse owned a home; suspended tax-free rollover of RHSOP funds to an RRSP; and capped the lifetime of the RHOSP at 20 years). In 1977, Trudeau's government established the financial program
Established Programs Financing to help finance the
provincially-run
healthcare and post-secondary education system, through
transfer payments, by
cash and
tax points. This system lasted until 1995. In 1979, Trudeau's government restructured
family allowances by increasing the role of the tax system in child support and decreasing the role of family allowances. The government established an annual Refundable Child Tax Credit of $200 for families with incomes of $18,000 or less. As incomes increased above this level, benefits would be taxed away to disappear completely at $26,000. Since the median income for families during this time was $19,500, the majority of families received some benefit from the new program.
Taxation In 1969, Trudeau's first
finance minister,
Edgar Benson, introduced a white paper on tax reform which included
tax deductions for
child care and advocated shifting the tax burden from the poor to the wealthy. Measures to fulfill the latter proposal included a
capital gains tax, which was severely criticized by corporate Canada and the business community (notably
Israel Asper). The bill was debated in Parliament for over a year, with its more radical proposals being removed in parliamentary committee. The reforms managed to be passed through the use of
closure, with the capital gains tax (that had an inclusion rate of 50 percent) coming into effect on January 1, 1972, as prescribed by the
1971 budget. Also implemented in 1972 was the child care expense deduction which allowed for a deduction of up to $500 per child. As Benson had now become a political liability, Trudeau replaced him with
John Turner (who was seen as a "
Business Liberal") in 1972. In 1973, Trudeau's government fully indexed the
person income tax system (both the exemptions and the brackets) to match inflation. The indexation was made effective in 1974; during that year, inflation had jumped from six percent to double digits. The government also implemented three personal income tax cuts from 1973 to 1975.
Inflation While popular with the electorate, Trudeau's promised minor reforms had little effect on the growing rate of inflation, and he struggled with conflicting advice on the crisis. In September 1975,
finance minister John Turner resigned over refusing to implement
wage and price controls. In December 1975, in an embarrassing about-face, Trudeau and new Finance Minister
Donald Macdonald introduced wage and price controls by passing the
Anti-Inflation Act, despite campaigning against them in the 1974 election. Amongst its many controls, it limited pay increases for federal government employees and employees in companies with over 500 workers to 10 percent in 1976, 8 percent in 1977, and 6 percent in 1978. The Act also established the anti-inflation board which oversaw the implementation of wage and price controls and had the ability to recommend decreases in prices of goods, wage cuts, and rebates to customers of various services. The breadth of the legislation, which touched on many powers traditionally considered the purview of the provinces, prompted
a Supreme Court reference that only upheld the legislation as an
emergency requiring Federal intervention under the
British North America Act. During the annual 1975 Christmas interview with
CTV, Trudeau discussed the economy, citing market failures and stating that more state intervention would be necessary. However, the academic wording and hypothetical solutions posed during the complex discussion led much of the public to believe he had declared capitalism itself a failure, creating a lasting distrust among increasingly
neoliberal business leaders. The controls lasted until 1978 and the anti-inflation board was dissolved in 1979. In the early 1970s, the
petroleum industry was largely under foreign (mainly American) control, the recent discovery of oil in
Alaska put corporate pressure on the
Canadian Arctic, and Canada's energy sector increasingly focused on North American rather than domestic needs. Trudeau's government initially rejected the idea of creating a nationalized oil company (which was perceived to secure supplies, improve revenue collection, and give governments better information on the global energy market), arguing it would be costly and inefficient. However, after the
late 1973 oil crisis saw global oil prices quadruple, questions arose about whether Canada should continue importing oil. Though Canada also exported oil at times, the provinces of Quebec and Atlantic Canada were at risk of a cut-off of imports; as a result, Canada was in need of knowing more about its potential to produce energy. In late October 1973, Trudeau's government adopted a motion from the
New Democratic Party (which the Trudeau
minority government relied on for support) to establish a nationalized oil company. The
Petro-Canada Act was passed in 1975 (under a Trudeau
majority government), resulting in the creation of a new
crown corporation,
Petro-Canada. Petro-Canada was mandated to acquire imported oil supplies, take part in energy research and development, and engage in downstream activities such as refining and marketing. The corporation started with an initial $1.5 billion in capital and had preferential access to debt capital as "an agent of Her Majesty". Trudeau's government gave itself authority over Petro-Canada's capital budget and its corporate strategy, making the company its policy arm; the government also wanted the company to be mainly active on the frontiers (the oil sands, the Arctic, and the East Coast offshore areas) rather than Western Canada, where most Canadian oil is extracted. In 1976, Trudeau appointed his friend,
Maurice Strong, to become the first chair of the company.
Foreign affairs In foreign affairs, Trudeau kept Canada in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (
NATO), but often pursued an independent path in international relations. Trudeau was the first world leader to meet
John Lennon and his wife
Yoko Ono on their 1969 "tour for
world peace". Lennon said, after talking with Trudeau for 50 minutes, that Trudeau was "a beautiful person" and that "if all politicians were like Pierre Trudeau, there would be world peace". The diplomat
John G. H. Halstead who worked as a close adviser to Trudeau for a time described him as a man who never read any of the policy papers submitted by the External Affairs department, instead preferring short briefings on the issues before meeting other leaders and that Trudeau usually tried to "wing" his way through international meetings by being witty. Halstead stated that Trudeau viewed foreign policy as "only for dabbing", saying he much preferred domestic affairs.
NATO In August 1968, the Trudeau government expressed disapproval of the
Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, having the Canadian delegation at the United Nations vote for a resolution condemning the invasion, which failed to pass owing to a Soviet veto. However, Trudeau made it clear that he did not want an intensified Cold War as a result of the invasion, and worked to avoid a rupture with Moscow. In a speech in December 1968, Trudeau asked: "Can we assume Russia wants war because it invaded Czechoslovakia?". In 1968–1969, Trudeau wanted to pull Canada out of NATO, arguing that the principle of
mutual assured destruction (MAD) caused by a Soviet-American nuclear exchange made it highly unlikely that the Soviet Union would ever invade
West Germany, thereby making NATO into an expensive irrelevance in his view. In March 1969, Trudeau visited Washington to meet President
Richard Nixon. Although the meeting was very civil, Nixon came to intensely dislike Trudeau over time, referring to the Prime Minister in 1971 as "that asshole Trudeau". Nixon made it clear to Trudeau that a Canada that remained in NATO would be taken more seriously in Washington than a Canada that left NATO. Trudeau himself noted during a speech given before the
National Press Club during the same visit that the United States was by far Canada's largest trading partner, saying: "Living next to you is in some way like sleeping with an elephant; no matter how friendly and even-tempered the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt". The NATO question sharply divided the Cabinet. Diplomat
Marcel Cadieux accused Trudeau of "not seeming to believe in the Soviet danger". As a diplomat, the devout Catholic Cadieux had served on the
International Control Commission in 1954–55, where his experiences of witnessing the exodus of two million Vietnamese Catholics from
North Vietnam to
South Vietnam made him into a very firm anti-Communist. In late March 1969, Trudeau's cabinet was torn by debate as ministers divided into pro-NATO and anti-NATO camps, and Trudeau's own feelings were with the latter. Defence Minister
Léo Cadieux threatened to resign in protest if Canada left NATO, leading Trudeau, who wanted to keep a French-Canadian in a high-profile portfolio such as the Department of National Defence, to meet Cadieux on April 2 to discuss a possible compromise. Trudeau and Cadieux agreed that Canada would stay in NATO, but drastically cut back its contributions, despite warnings from
Ross Campbell, the Canadian member of the NATO Council, that the scale of the cuts envisioned would break Canada's treaty commitments. Ultimately, the fact the United States would be more favourably disposed to a Canada in NATO and the need to maintain Cabinet unity led Trudeau to decide, despite his own inclinations, to stay in NATO. After much discussion within the cabinet, Trudeau finally declared that Canada would stay within NATO after all on April 3, but he would cut back Canada's forces within Europe by 50%. The way that Canada cut its NATO contributions by 50% caused tensions with other NATO allies, with the British government of Prime Minister
Harold Wilson publicly protesting the cuts.
United States on April 14, 1972 in the
Oval Office on September 9, 1977 Relations with the United States deteriorated on many points during the
Nixon presidency (1969–74), including trade disputes, defence agreements, energy, fishing, the environment, cultural imperialism, and foreign policy. On January 4, 1973, Trudeau voted for a resolution in the House of Commons that condemned the American
Christmas bombings against North Vietnam between December 18 and 29, 1972. As a consequence, Canadian-American relations, already under stress because of the mutual contempt between Nixon and Trudeau, reached a post-war nadir. Nixon was infuriated by the resolution and refused to see Marcel Cadieux, now the Canadian ambassador in Washington, in protest for the rest of 1973. Nixon was only prevented from lashing out more by his desire to have Canada continue as the pro-Western member on the International Control Commission for Vietnam. Prompted by Halstead, who was known as a proponent of economic "rebalancing" by seeking closer economic ties with the EEC, Trudeau made a visit to Brussels in October 1973 to see
François-Xavier Ortoli, the president of the
European Commission, to ask for a Canadian-EEC free trade agreement. Halstead used Nixon's displeasure with Canada as an argument that it was finally time for "economic rebalancing" by seeking closer ties with the EEC, a thesis that Halstead had been advocating ever since the early 1960s. Ortoli refused Trudeau's request for a free trade agreement with the EEC, saying that was out of the question, but did agree to open talks on lowering tariffs between Canada and the EEC. Trudeau continued his attempts at increasing Canada's international profile, including joining the
G7 group of major economic powers in 1976 at the behest of U.S. President
Gerald Ford. American-Canadian relations changed for the better when Trudeau found a better rapport with Ford's successor,
Jimmy Carter. The late 1970s saw a more sympathetic American attitude toward Canadian political and economic needs, the pardoning of draft evaders who had moved to Canada, and the passing of old sore points such as Watergate and the Vietnam War. Canada more than ever welcomed American investments during the "
stagflation" (high inflation and high unemployment at the same time) that hurt both nations in the 1970s.
United Kingdom and France Trudeau attached little importance to
Canada–United Kingdom relations. While he rebuffed a suggestion by one of his ministers to turn Canada into a republic in 1968, he treated the
Canadian monarchy with a certain bemused contempt. Britain's decision to join the
European Economic Community (EEC) in 1973 and Japan's replacement of the UK as Canada's second-largest trading partner confirmed Trudeau's view that Britain was a declining power which had little to offer Canada. However, Trudeau was attached to the Commonwealth, believing it was an international body that allowed Canada to project influence on the
Third World as it was one of the few bodies that allowed leaders from the First and Third Worlds to meet on a regular basis. Although France was no longer as supportive of Quebec separatism as it had been under President
Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s, repeated expressions of the idea of a special Franco-Quebecois bond as opposed to a Franco-Canadian bond by French politicians throughout the 1970s led to tensions between the two nations. and French President
François Mitterrand in France on June 6, 1984 In 1970, the Commonwealth was threatened with a split as a number of African members, supported by India, attempted to block planned British arms sales to South Africa, then under the system of
apartheid. The Zambian government submitted a draft of principles which would have bound Commonwealth member states to give no assistance to nations practising racial discrimination. The
first Wilson ministry had imposed an arms embargo on South Africa in 1964, which the
Heath ministry ended in 1970 on the grounds that the South African government was pro-Western and anti-communist. A number of African Commonwealth nations led by Zambia and Tanzania threatened to leave the organization if the arms sales went through. When British Prime Minister
Edward Heath visited Ottawa in December 1970, his meetings with Trudeau went poorly. In what was described as a "no holds-barred" style, Trudeau told Heath that the planned arms sales were threatening the Commonwealth's unity. At a
Commonwealth summit in Singapore in January 1971, Trudeau argued that apartheid was not sustainable in the long run given that Black South Africans vastly outnumbered white South Africans, and any external support for the apartheid government was myopic given that
majority rule was inevitable. However, Trudeau worked for a compromise to avoid a split in the Commonwealth, arguing that it needed to do more to pressure South Africa to end apartheid peacefully, and saying that a
race war in South Africa would be the worse possible way to end apartheid. The conference ended with a compromise agreement in which Britain would fulfil its existing arms contracts to South Africa but henceforth sell no more weapons to them; ultimately, the British only sold South Africa five attack helicopters. Singaporean Prime Minister and conference host
Lee Kuan Yew later praised Trudeau for his efforts at the summit to hold the Commonwealth together, despite the passions aroused by the South African issue.
Germany in Bonn, West Germany, 1978 Trudeau had an especially close friendship with the Social Democratic West German Chancellor
Helmut Schmidt, whom he greatly liked both for his left-wing politics and as a practical politician who was more concerned about getting things done rather than with ideological questions. Schmidt was sympathetic towards Trudeau's "rebalancing" concept, telling Trudeau that he wanted West Germany to have two North American partners instead of one, and promised at a 1975 meeting to use West German influence within the EEC to grant Canada better trade terms in exchange for Canada spending more on its NATO commitments. After meeting Schmidt, Trudeau performed a
volte-face on NATO, speaking at a press conference of how much he valued NATO as an alliance that was established for collective security in Europe. To show his approval of Schmidt, Trudeau not only agreed to spend more on NATO, but insisted that the Canadian Army buy the German-built
Leopard tank, which thereby boosted the West German arms industry, over the opposition of the Finance department, which felt that buying the Leopard tanks was wasteful. Schmidt's support was especially welcome as Wilson, once again back as the British prime minister, proved unwilling to lobby for the EEC lowering tariffs on Canadian goods, merely saying that he was willing "to interpret Canadian policy" to the other EEC leaders. By contrast, the West German Foreign Minister
Hans-Dietrich Genscher gave Trudeau a firm promise of West German support for an EEC-Canadian economic agreement. The major hold-out was France, which was stoutly opposed to an EEC-Canadian agreement, believing that giving EEC market access to Canadian agriculture as a threat to French agriculture. In July 1976 a Canadian-EEC Framework Economic Agreement was signed, which came into effect on October 1, 1976. Trudeau hoped would be the Framework Agreement would be the first step towards a Canadian-EEC free trade agreement, but the EEC proved to be uninterested in free trade with Canada.
China Trudeau established Canadian diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 1970 and became the first Canadian prime minister to make an official visit to
Beijing. On February 10, 1969, the government announced its wish to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic, and Trudeau was mortified when the Chinese refused to respond at first, which made him look foolish. Unknown to Trudeau, the Chinese diplomatic corps had been so thoroughly purged during the
Cultural Revolution that the Chinese Foreign Ministry barely functioned by early 1969. On February 19, 1969, the Chinese finally responded and agreed to open talks in Stockholm on establishing diplomatic relations, which began on April 3, 1969. Trudeau expected the negotiations to be a mere formality, but relations were not finally established until October 1970. The delay was largely because the Chinese insisted that Canada have no relations whatsoever with "the
Chiang Kai-shek gang" as they called the
Kuomintang regime in
Taiwan and agree to support the Chinese position that Taiwan was a part of the People's Republic, a position that caused problems on the Canadian side as it implied Canadian support for China's viewpoint that it had the right to take Taiwan by force into the People's Republic. On October 10, 1970, a statement was issued by the External Affairs department in Ottawa saying: "The Chinese government reaffirms that Taiwan is an inalienable part of the territory of the People's Republic of China. The Canadian government takes note of the Chinese position". After the statement was issued, China and Canada established diplomatic relations on the same day. The so-called "Canadian formula" under which a nation "takes note" of the Chinese viewpoint that Taiwan is part of the People's Republic has been often copied by other nations that have established diplomatic relations with Beijing, most notably the United States in 1979. In October 1973, Trudeau visited Beijing to meet
Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong and
premier Zhou Enlai, where Trudeau was hailed as "old friend", a term of high approval in China. In 1976, Trudeau, succumbing to pressure from the Chinese government, issued an order barring
Taiwan from participating as China in the
1976 Montreal Olympics, although technically it was a matter for the
IOC.
Cuba Trudeau was known as a friend of
Fidel Castro, the leader of Cuba. In January 1976, Trudeau visited Cuba to meet Castro and shouted to a crowd in
Havana "
Viva Cuba! Viva Castro!" ("Long Live Cuba! Long Live Castro!"). In November 1975,
Cuba had intervened in the
Angolan Civil War on the side of the Marxist
MPLA government supported by the Soviet Union which was fighting against the
UNITA and
FNLA guerrilla movements supported by the United States, South Africa and
Zaire (the present-day
Democratic Republic of the Congo). Although both Zaire and South Africa had also intervened in Angola, sending in troops to support the FLNA and UNITA respectively, it was the Cuban intervention in Angola that caused controversy in the West. Many people in the West saw the Cuban intervention as aggression and a power play by the Soviet Union to win a sphere of influence in Africa. Angola was amply endowed with oil, and many saw the victory of the MPLA/Cuban forces in the first round of the Angolan civil war in 1975–1976 as a major blow to Western interests in Africa. Trudeau's remarks in Havana were widely seen in the West as expressing approval not only of Cuba's Communist government, but also of the Cuban intervention in Angola. In fact, Trudeau did press Castro in private to pull his troops out of Angola, only for Castro to insist that Cuba would do so only when South Africa likewise pulled its forces out of not only Angola, but also
South West Africa (modern-day
Namibia). Trudeau's embrace of Castro attracted much criticism in the United States, which allowed Trudeau to appear as a leader who was "standing up" to the United States without seriously damaging American-Canadian relations.
Re-elections 1972 election On September 1, 1972, over four years into the Liberals' five-year mandate, Trudeau called
an election for October 30. At the start of the campaign, polls showed the Liberals 10 points ahead of the
Progressive Conservatives led by
Robert Stanfield, who previously lost to Trudeau in the
1968 election. However, the results produced a Liberal
minority government, with the Liberals winning 109 seats compared to the PCs' 107; this was one of the closest elections in Canadian history.
Trudeaumania from the 1968 election had worn off, not least because of a slumping economy and rising unemployment. The NDP, led by
David Lewis, held the
balance of power.
1974 election In May 1974, the House of Commons passed a
motion of no confidence in the Trudeau government, defeating its budget bill after Trudeau intentionally antagonized Stanfield and Lewis. The
ensuing election focused mainly on the
then-ongoing recession. Stanfield proposed the immediate introduction of
wage and price controls to help end the increasing
inflation Canada was facing. Trudeau mocked the proposal, telling a newspaper reporter that it was the equivalent of a magician saying "Zap! You're frozen", and instead promoted a variety of small tax cuts to curb inflation. According to Trudeau's biographer John English, NDP supporters scared of wage controls moved toward the Liberals during the campaign. The Liberals were re-elected with a majority government, winning 141 out of 264 seats, prompting Stanfield's retirement. However, the Liberals did not win any seats in Alberta, where Premier
Peter Lougheed was a vociferous opponent of Trudeau's 1974 budget.
Defeat in 1979 As the 1970s wore on, growing public exhaustion towards Trudeau's personality and the country's constitutional debates caused his poll numbers to fall rapidly in the late 1970s. At the
1978 G7 summit, he discussed strategies for the upcoming election with West German Chancellor
Helmut Schmidt, who advised him to announce several spending cuts to quell criticism of the large deficits his government was running. After a series of by-election defeats in 1978, Trudeau waited as long as he could to call a
general election in 1979. He finally did so, only two months from the five-year limit provided under the
British North America Act. During the election campaign, the Liberals faced declining poll numbers, while the
Joe Clark–led Progressive Conservatives focused on "pocketbook" issues. To contrast Trudeau's image with that of the mild-mannered Clark, Trudeau and his advisors based their campaign on Trudeau's decisive personality and his grasp of the Constitution file, despite the general public's apparent wariness of both. The traditional Liberal rally at
Maple Leaf Gardens saw Trudeau stressing the importance of major constitutional reform to general ennui, and his campaign "photo-ops" were typically surrounded by picket lines and protesters. Though polls portended disaster, Clark's struggles justifying his party's populist platform and a strong Trudeau performance in the election debate helped bring the Liberals to a near statistical ties in
opinion polls. Although the Liberal Party won the popular vote by four points, its vote was concentrated in Quebec and faltered in industrial Ontario. This allowed the PCs to win a plurality of the seats in the House of Commons and form a minority government. == Opposition leader (1979–1980) ==