The Canadian federal election of 1968 was the beginning of a legacy, in the form of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. Trudeau is to become one of Canada’s longest serving prime ministers reigning from 1968-79 and returning in 1980-84. Trudeau is probably Canadas most well know politicians, and has now been succeeded by his son, Justin Trudeau, voted in to office in the most recent election. The Canadian situation was heavily dominated with Quebec nationalists versus a federally run bilingual Canada. Internationally Martin Luther King had been assassinated, and after the Cuban missile crisis the cold war tensions were extremely high. The situations Canada would have to deal with, creating and changing national policies, and high tensions would
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In the Canadian election of 1962 the idea of a Canadian election debate was proposed but declined by one of the parties. By 1968 CTV made an offer to the liberal and conservative leaders to have a broadcast of a debate. The NDP made a motion to protest the fact that they had not been invited to the broadcasted event. In the end the debate took place and had a relatively large viewing, and included the three central political leaders. This was in part due to Trudeau’s demand in line with the NDP’s for all parties to be invited and for the event to be bilingual. The event had more viewers than that of a debate in a more recent election of 2011, even with an increased population and stronger television network. Trudeau even said the night of the debate how he found the debate boring; “I thought the whole thing was pretty dull...I wouldn't want to impose another one on the Canadian public”. The importance this televised debate which was the first of its kind for Canada, was less the nature of getting their message out but the opportunity this provided to the party leaders to make moves in the campaign. The NDP had the opportunity to publicly demand invitation to the debate as is there right, more importantly however is how Trudeau demanded all parties be invited and for a bilingual broadcast. This not only made Trudeau …show more content…
This issue would escalate over Trudeau’s time in office. The FLQ Quebec nationalist group would take to extremist measures, this only emphasizes the seriousness of the issue at hand. The liberals had a strong position and that was one country under a bilingual federal government to represent all Canadians. The conservatives in an attempt to take a different stance on the issue opted to explain their positon as two nations under one country, which was less popular with the public. The liberals had a moto for a just society, offering more social programs, national unity, and regional development, led by Pierre Trudeau. The liberal had created a strong policy on the national issues, and as such became popular with the population. On top of this the liberal campaign let by Trudeau was strongly influenced by his personality, as seen through the commonly used statement: “Come work with me”. The conservatives however had a policy of two countries which was not well accepted by the Canadian public. The policy created by the liberal party along with the leadership of Pierre Trudeau, whose strong personality appealed to Canadians, led to a strong result in the
In the Canadian election of 1962 the idea of a Canadian election debate was proposed but declined by one of the parties. By 1968 CTV made an offer to the liberal and conservative leaders to have a broadcast of a debate. The NDP made a motion to protest the fact that they had not been invited to the broadcasted event. In the end the debate took place and had a relatively large viewing, and included the three central political leaders. This was in part due to Trudeau’s demand in line with the NDP’s for all parties to be invited and for the event to be bilingual. The event had more viewers than that of a debate in a more recent election of 2011, even with an increased population and stronger television network. Trudeau even said the night of the debate how he found the debate boring; “I thought the whole thing was pretty dull...I wouldn't want to impose another one on the Canadian public”. The importance this televised debate which was the first of its kind for Canada, was less the nature of getting their message out but the opportunity this provided to the party leaders to make moves in the campaign. The NDP had the opportunity to publicly demand invitation to the debate as is there right, more importantly however is how Trudeau demanded all parties be invited and for a bilingual broadcast. This not only made Trudeau …show more content…
This issue would escalate over Trudeau’s time in office. The FLQ Quebec nationalist group would take to extremist measures, this only emphasizes the seriousness of the issue at hand. The liberals had a strong position and that was one country under a bilingual federal government to represent all Canadians. The conservatives in an attempt to take a different stance on the issue opted to explain their positon as two nations under one country, which was less popular with the public. The liberals had a moto for a just society, offering more social programs, national unity, and regional development, led by Pierre Trudeau. The liberal had created a strong policy on the national issues, and as such became popular with the population. On top of this the liberal campaign let by Trudeau was strongly influenced by his personality, as seen through the commonly used statement: “Come work with me”. The conservatives however had a policy of two countries which was not well accepted by the Canadian public. The policy created by the liberal party along with the leadership of Pierre Trudeau, whose strong personality appealed to Canadians, led to a strong result in the