Former prime minister Justin Trudeau at the Senate Chamber in Ottawa in May.Chris Jackson/Getty Images
There were some who believed that John George Diefenbaker, our 13th prime minister, was a few cards short of a full deck. One was then-Ontario premier Leslie Frost. “Sometimes I really do think he’s crazy,” he told Tory strategist Eddie Goodman.
“Why only sometimes?” Goodman replied.
Dief’s hallucinatory facial expressions and careening brain fed the impression. It’s among the reasons – in combination with squandering a 208-seat majority in just five years – why he hasn’t been accorded much respect.
Until now. From the dustbin of history, Dief the Chief is being resurrected. Two big books have recast him positively. Issues he once championed are now back in vogue.
Bob Plamondon’s Freedom Fighter chronicles how Diefenbaker stood strong against American domination and how he supported Indigenous peoples when others didn’t. Jean Chrétien writes approvingly in the preface of Dief’s taking on the establishment. Dief’s words, “It’s me against the Americans fighting for the little guy,” have an appealing ring today.
Justin Trudeau’s rise and fall, as seen on The Globe’s front pages
In The Duel, author John Ibbitson, while not overlooking the Tory tornado’s failings, makes a compelling case for how he has not received due credit for his work on human rights, immigration and health care, and his stance against apartheid in Africa.
Diefenbaker is far from being the only prime minister whose image fares much better with the passage of time. The great majority of them do, an exception being John A. Macdonald, whose reputation 150 years on has been terribly tarnished by his treatment of Indigenous people.
Brian Mulroney was hated when he left office in 1993 but is respected now. John Turner led the Liberals to a disaster in the 1984 election and was beaten again in 1988 but has received a sympathetic biography from Steve Paikin. Joe Clark was a target of derision for blowing his minority in 1979 but is treated like an elder statesman today. Mr. Chrétien’s sponsorship scandal and Stephen Harper’s control-freak excesses are rarely mentioned.
In The Prime Ministers, his just-published book of fair-minded thumbnail sketches of our leaders, J.D.M. Stewart makes note of our forgiving nature. “Canadians frequently tend to focus on the positives when looking back on their leaders,” he writes.
For the PMs, time heals. Which means there may even be hope for Justin Trudeau. No prime minister has left office in such low esteem since Mr. Mulroney, who did not have to dwell in the hell of antisocial media like Mr. Trudeau.
The polarizing Liberal has been silent since leaving office but took to defending his record Sunday on the 10th anniversary of his taking power. “A decade later, we’ve lifted hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty, strengthened and grown the middle class, built a $10-a-day child care system, led the fight against climate change, advanced reconciliation, and made Canada more inclusive and fair for everyone.”
Editorial: Justin Trudeau failed to make ready for the storm
The response was scathing, with the vast majority of respondents pillorying him for his lefty wokeism and the country’s dismal economic growth during his stewardship. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was still on his case during an interview with YouTube channel Northern Perspective last week, saying that the Trudeau scandals “should have involved jail time.”
It took Mr. Mulroney decades to repair his image, but repair it he did, so much so that he received such flattering media notices upon his passing that his family decided not to posthumously publish a manuscript he had prepared defending himself against old corruption charges.
Our PMs get better media treatment once out of the cauldron of power, not the type of coverage President Lyndon Johnson once lamented. “If one morning I walked on water across the Potomac,” he cracked, “the headline that afternoon would read, ‘President Can’t Swim.’”
Historians will give some credit to Mr. Trudeau for his social reforms, for getting Canada through the pandemic better than other countries and for his undefeated electoral record. Were it not for luck, his legacy could be far worse. Given his appallingly low support level as he left, it appeared he was going to drag the party down with him. But along came Donald Trump’s egregious threats, and then along came Mark Carney to help the Liberals win again.
Prime ministers like Mr. Chrétien and Mr. Harper fight to protect their legacies with books and public appearances. Mr. Trudeau is in such disfavour that he is likely to lie low for a lengthy period until time has softened the visceral animosity toward him.
But like Pierre Trudeau, who campaigned forcefully in his retirement against Mr. Mulroney’s constitutional accords, Justin Trudeau will be heard from again. There’s too much pride and fight in him to remain silent in the face of all the condemnation.