Thread by @kiteie

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne You mean Chinese decided to donate because of their admiration of PET??
It was under PM PE Trudeau’s leadership that Canada broke from its calcified conventions and came bracingly of age. Pierre Trudeau combined intellectual electricity, star-power charisma,

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne ....and a contrarian's independent mind. What this blend of characteristics, rare in any leader anywhere, gave rise to was a transformational impact on the culture and character of this country. Trudeau challenged and tore down stereotypes, he unfastened Canada from old men,

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne ...from old thinking, from narrow traditions, from colonial caution. The highly popular Charter of Rights and Freedom unifies Canada around a set of principles, around civil rights and political rights in the face of overreaching government. It was the work of one man.

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne The obstacles Trudeau overcame to get this done were enormous. It was the Trudeau Sr government that had to pick up the tab for the Canada Pension Plan, the Canada Assistance Plan, and medicare supplements. Pearson had established a super-expensive matching formula ....

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne ...of 50-50 with the provinces on education and health care. It was left to Trudeau Sr to pick up the tab. In the Trudeau Sr period there were two globally triggered recessions. People who think any prime minister would not have run major deficits through this period ..

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne are simply deluding themselves.
There were the OPEC oil price shocks, then stagflation, then a widespread recession. It’s doubtful any Canadian PM could have fared well. Paring down the deficit, for example, was a goal of Tory finance minister John Crosbie with his tax ...

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne on gasoline in 1979. It backfired. Mr. Mulroney later wanted to cut social entitlements. The public wouldn’t have it. Chretien broke the back of the deficit with his 1995 budget. It could have been done in a 1985 budget, but the Tories weren’t prepared to risk the wrath.

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne While it’s correct to say Mr. Trudeau’s economic performance was mainly miserable, (he added $79 billion to the debt) so were the results of most other leaders through the period. Economies were crashing all over the place. Check Britain’s foundering back then and the ......

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne brutal misery index in the United States. In fact, the fiscal record of Trudeau Senior actually looks pretty good when compared to that of Brian Mulroney. Under Trudeau, the average annual deficit was 2.9 per cent of GDP between 1969-70 and 1979-80;

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne under Mulroney the average annual deficit was 6.7 per cent of GDP between 1983-84 and 1994-95. Standards of living grew appreciably in the Trudeau Sr years, far more so than in the three decades following when they have flat-lined. Under Trudeau Sr, .....

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne the percentage of Canadians living in poverty dropped from 23 per cent in 1968 to 13 per cent in 1984. Repeat, from 23 per cent to 13 per cent. PET lowered taxes more than Harper did. Federal Income Tax Brackets and Maximum Tax Rates: 1950-1980
web.stanford.edu/class/polisci1…

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne PET was Canada's top defence spender: We are still using some of the equipment that PET bought. PET spent 2% of GDP on defense in 1971-72 and no other PM has spent that much.
In 1971 when Nixon unilaterally imposed an import tax surcharge across the board, ....

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne Trudeau Sr determined to strengthen national institutions in Canada. Its aspirations were those of the emerging ‘Gray Report’ (“Foreign Direct Investment in Canada”, Information Canada, Ottawa, 1972) which outlined how massive foreign ownership had reduced Canadian

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne leverage over domestic economic development. Trudeau Sr’s creation of the Canada Development Corporation and a foreign investment review agency meant to scrutinize ‘net benefit’ to Canada of incoming capital, and a host of other agencies and ideas then or later, such as Petrocan,

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne may seem statist and contrary to market forces.
But that market forces alone were marginalizing Canadian economic life was a widely held view at the time. A case can be made that strengthening Canadian capabilities in research and development and .....

@Foretoldimages @MisterDoubleJ @ElkeBabiuk @acoyne upgrading resources were essential pre-conditions for the flat-out competition introduced by the free trade agreement with the United States 17 years later. THAT is why PET was voted best PM in history!!!