The Perils of Pierre

Pierre Elliott Trudeau will arrive in China on October 10 for a week-long state visit, with the usual wining, dining and sightseeing. That is a considerably friendlier prospect than the Prime Minister has been facing back home in Canada.

Trudeau is beset by serious political and economic woes. Despite all his efforts, Canada is reeling from growing inflation and rising unemployment. Quebec separatists regard the Official Languages Act--which makes French along with English the official language of government--as tokenism. The western provinces growl that the government is ignoring their problems.

Clearly the "Trudeaumania" that swept Canada with Trudeau's election in 1968 has withered. When they put him in office, Canadians thought that they were getting a lively Kennedy-like leader, and for a while he did not disappoint them. He appeared in the House of Commons in ascot and sandals, frugged, dated Barbra Streisand, and in general looked and behaved more like a playboy than in the usual stodgy manner of Canadian Prime Ministers. He also fashioned solid accomplishments such as his firm handling of the separatist crisis in 1970, pushing a tax reform through the Commons and opening relations with China.

But another side of Trudeau also began to emerge. He grew imperious in his dealings with the Commons, openly sneered at members who disagreed with him (favorite asides: "dope," "blockhead," "fool"). He seemed at times to become equally disdainful of the electorate. He tended to lecture rather than orate. While staffers groaned, he announced last fall that he would not campaign in his first re-election bid. Instead, he would hold "conversations with Canadians" on important issues.

Canadians did not like Trudeau's professorial tone, much less the country's economic disarray. The election left his party with only 109 seats, down from 155, leaving Trudeau with a minority government dependent for survival upon the support of the mildly socialist New Democratic Party. Recalls an aide of the postelection weeks: "Pierre brooded, exploded, and shrugged."

He also began to change his image. He shed ascot and sandals for somber pinstripe suits. He has replaced some of his intellectual advisers by party functionaries who better understand grassroots politics. Trudeau became, in short, a pragmatic politician whose style changed to accommodation.

He has sobered even more since then, due in part to a nearly calamitous summer. A crippling nationwide railway strike, coupled with a 1.3% jump in inflation, further damaged his party's image. Trudeau survived a Conservative motion of no-confidence only because of his coalition with the New Democrats, whose backing helped him to a 129-to-102 victory.

Trudeau, 53, must now face a long Canadian winter. There is little likelihood that Conservative Opposition Leader Robert Stanfield, who lost so narrowly last time, will give him a breather. The trip to China will not solve Trudeau's troubles at home. Inflation (especially in food prices)--along with unemployment and fractious Quebec--provides Stanfield with missiles to try to pierce Trudeau's new image.

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