Trudeau’s World: Insiders Reflect on Foreign Policy, Trade, and Defence, 1968-84

Robert Bothwell · J.L. Granatstein

Oct 2017 · UBC Press

About this ebook

Pierre Trudeau and most of his contemporaries at home and abroad are now dead. This book offers reflections on Canadian foreign, trade, and defence policies from interviews conducted more than three decades ago with key policy makers, diplomats, and military officers in the Trudeau government and of that era.

The interviews are informative and revealingly frank. There is much on the enormous difficulties in dealing with the United States, Europe, NATO, the Soviet Union, and Communist China in an era dominated by the Cold War. There are also personal insights into Trudeau himself – a man of great “esprit,” who initially seemed destined to change Canadian policy in a dramatic fashion. Over time, however, this was not to be, and his government policies reverted towards the norm.

A unique resource, Trudeau’s World adds immeasurably to our understanding of the Trudeau era. It also has much to tell us about Canada and the world from 1968 to 1984.

About the author

Robert Bothwell is a professor of history at the University of Toronto.

J.L. Granatstein is a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of History at York University.