Lester Pearson

Liberal Party (Canada) History Pearson and Trudeau

Introduction to Lester Pearson

After a brief hiatus, the Liberals again dominated Canadian politics from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. Lester Pearson was elected prime minister in 1963 but was hampered by never having a Liberal majority in Parliament. However, he was followed by Pierre Elliott Trudeau, an especially influential Liberal prime minister, who was in office almost continuously from 1968 to 1984.

Trudeau supported several major policy initiatives, such as a national energy program and bilingualism, which gave the French language the same status as English in the federal government. His most notable achievement was to gain from Britain full control over the Constitution of Canada. Previously, Canada had lacked the power to amend its own constitution. Trudeau also was successful in adding a charter of rights and freedoms to the constitution. The charter was significant because it spelled out individual rights that are superior to legislative acts, and thus reduced parliamentary control over these and other political issues in favor of a more American-style reliance on court decisions.

Trudeau lost support in the west, where Liberal support was already low, because voters believed that his policies favored central Canadian economic interests. He offended many speakers of English by promoting bilingualism. He also caused hard feelings among French Canadians by pushing through the constitutional changes without the support of the government of Québec and by including among these changes provisions that some saw as giving excessive strength to the federal government versus the provinces.” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

Information about Lester Pearson in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Lester Pearson

Law is our Passion

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This entry was last updated: August 24, 2014