Diane: Or up the tube. Sorry, that was vulgar. The next Prime Minister, Pierre Eliot Trudeau not only talked about making Canada less dependent on the United States but took concrete steps to do just that. Mind you, he was encouraged to do so by the New Democratic Party on whose support his minority government of 1972 to 1974 depended.

Johnny: I never quite understood the appeal of majority governments for the electorate. I would argue that minority governments, especially those of Pearson and Trudeau, produced some of the best governments Canada ever had.

Diane: I would agree with you. The worst governments the country ever had were majority governments, especially Conservative majorities.

Johnny: Speaking of Trudeau, what concrete steps did he take to give Canadians control of their economy?

Diane: Two things. At least two things. He created FIRA, the Foreign Investment Review Agency and launched the National Energy Program or NEP for short. FIRA would screen foreign investments to ensure they were in Canada’s interest and the NEP, introduced in 1980, sought to increase both Canadian control and Canadian ownership of the energy industry.

Johnny: His programs obviously did not succeed?

Diane: Obviously. The efforts of Pearson and Trudeau – an effort that spanned a period of over 30 years – to give Canadians control of their economy all came undone in just a few years when the Conservatives returned to power with a majority government and, with a vengeance, set about undoing those three decades of progress towards Canadian ownership of their resources and control of their economy.

Johnny: You are talking, of course, of the coming to power of Brian Mulroney and the Conservatives in 1985?

Diane: From Sir John A. MacDonald to Pierre Elliot Trudeau, with the possible exception of Diefenbaker, Borden and Bennet, all Conservative Prime Ministers unfortunately, Canada was fortunate to have had leaders that believed in nation building and putting Canada first. They were nation builders. Their attitude to nation building was looking for the stuff that unites. Each in his own way found it.

Johnny: The stuff that unites??? What are you talking about?

Diane: Yes, you know … they created laws that would make all its citizens feel at home anywhere in the vastness of Canada culminating in the Official Languages Act; they got government more involved in the welfare of the less fortunate which led to universal and equal access to medical care and the elimination of the morally repugnant practice where one group in society could profit from the pain and suffering of another; they championed ambitious projects alone and with the private sector that tested the metal of the young country; they created national institutions to provide equal services to Canadians, whether they be in the city or labouring somewhere in the vast hinterland; they challenged the country to perform the incredible feats of engineering and organization, that I mentioned previously, that are even more impressive when you consider the size of the country and its small population.

Johnny: When did the country stop looking for this stuff, this stuff that unites, to use your words?

Diane: With the coming of the Mulroney Conservatives the country’s leadership started looking for that other stuff, stuff that even Diefenbaker, Borden, Bennet and company would never have considered.

Johnny: That other stuff???

Diane: Yes that other stuff, the stuff that creates disunity. It’s almost as if the Mulroney Conservatives, the modern Conservatives were scared of the country’s success and wanted to put a stop to it. Canada was leading the parade and that just would not do. In their insecure minds Canada should be a follower not a leader. For the old Conservatives that leadership had been British for the modern Conservatives that leadership would be American.

Johnny: If your theory of The Fracture is correct, their action, in retrospect, was literally “suicidal”?

Diane: Yes, it’s as if they had a “death wish” for Canada.

Johnny: So you are saying that the coming to power of the Mulroney Conservatives was the defining moment in Canadian history; the moment that would lead to the end of Canadian history, that would lead to The Fracture?