by David Piney.
As Minister of Justice under Pearson, Trudeau was well aware that management's first priority, inevitably, becomes the convenience of management: even at public expense.Thus his career effort was to to enshrine a code of remedial principles into Canada's administrative structure: the public's great Charter of Rights. His conclusions were insightful and far reaching, based on the supremacy of God (the real-life moral dimension of creation, and its cause and effect developmental laws), and as well, the fundamental human need for freedom. A formula in fact meant to evolve a decent, principled people with an intrinsic concern for the well-being of one another.Trudeau's views of the state and citizen participation were
shaped by his real-life knowledge that management raw expediency (authoritarianism) is lurking just around the corner.
He was constantly aware that, "there nowhere exists a
power which does not seek to increase itself, it's a universal law. The state is an indispensable
instrument, but it is also a threatening force, which must be held at bay, lest it oppress the
individual. Participation by everyone in the control and guidance of the state is therefore a
moral imperative as well as a practical necessity; politics -- as the act of preserving and
expanding freedom -- becomes the most important of human activities. "
Trudeau cites Plato's dictum that "the
price people pay for not concerning themselves with politics is to be governed by people worse
than themselves" and he adds; "A state in which people take no interest in political
matters is doomed to slavery.
Moreover, a truly enlightened self-interest must
combine with morality, to require that each person participate in the governance of the state with
an eye to more than their own welfare. A society of egoists quickly becomes a society of slaves.
For each man taken individually, is quite incapable of shaking an established government. Such
governments are not in the least weakened when a dissatisfied citizen no longer agrees to obey the
authorities, for they will simply put him in jail".
"To remain free, citizens must seek their well being in
a social order which is just to the largest number, for only large numbers have the power to make
and destroy governments."
"Thus men can live free and at peace only if their
society is just."
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God bless the legacy of one of Canada's greatest leaders, the
author of its fledgling Just Society: Pierre Elliot Trudeau.