Towards a Just Society

Agar Adamson is the author of Letters of Agar Adamson, 1914–19 and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

The late John Diefenbaker once remarked that the “Just Society” was
just for Liberals. A quick glance at the list of contributors to this
work might lead one to agree, but such a hasty assessment would be
incorrect.

In any book of this nature, some authors will be stroking their own
egos; some papers will stimulate and others will disappoint. For
example, we might have expected a political paper on fiscal policy,
particularly given the fiscal mess left behind by the Trudeau
government. Instead, we are treated to an interesting and scholarly work
on fiscal federalism by former finance deputy minister Thomas K.
Shoyama. Another former finance deputy minister, Ian A. Stewart, offers
a lesson in economic policy, emphasizing the globalization of the
Canadian economy during the Trudeau period.

Gérard Pelletier’s essay on the development of the official language
policy is vivid and instructive. Marc Lalonde gives his views on the
national energy policy and its flaws. Jean Chrétien’s chapter on
patriation is important, both as a useful historical document and
(because it includes an attack on the ill-fated Meech Lake Accord) as an
indicator of where Chrétien might take us constitutionally were he to
be elected prime minister.

Of course, the principal chapter is the final one, “The Values of a
Just Society,” by Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Until the former prime
minister writes his memoirs, this chapter may be as close as we will
ever come to knowing the man’s views on his prime ministership.

To be fair to the essayists, this work was not intended to be an
analytical dissection of the Trudeau years. Rather, it is a passionate
defence, by many of the key players, of their years in power and their
policies—in short, a polemic. Perhaps Trudeau’s chapter, which is in
part an attack on the Meech Lake Accord, is the most polemical of all.
But could such a work be anything else, given the authors and their
time?

For the political scientist, the work provides a lesson in cabinet
government, showing that conflicting interests always exist among the
members of cabinet, and that it is the prime minister’s duty to set
priorities and establish goals. Although many of the authors were not
politicians but rather political bureaucrats (with the Prime
Minister’s Office or the Privy Council Office), they nonetheless offer
insight into Canadian politics.

Pierre Trudeau may be retired, but he continues to hover over Canadian
politics and his successors like the giant Colossus of Rhodes.