Abstract
Reviewed by: Matthew S. Wiseman (matthew.wiseman@utoronto.ca ), University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
During the late 1980s, two of Canada’s leading historians in the field of politics and foreign affairs, Robert Bothwell and J.L. Granatstein, conducted a series of interviews as the research base for Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy (1990), a book commissioned by the Canadian Institute of International Affairs for its series Canada in World Affairs. The authors revived their original research to produce Trudeau’s World, amassing scores of unpublished interview text into a valuable curated collection about Canadian policy in the Trudeau era. Informed by first-hand accounts, the fresh and prudent perspectives offered in this book complement and build upon the existing literature.
The collection of interviews is impressive. Well-known ministers and diplomats such as Paul Martin, Mitchell Sharp, and Gordon Robertson offer insight into the inner-workings of the Trudeau government. Others comment from the outside, looking in on the particular events and issues that marked Trudeau’s experience with foreign affairs, defence, and trade in both the national and international arenas. Bothwell and Granatstein use geography to organize five of the ten chapters published in this book, providing the reader a separate engagement with Canadian relations vis-a-vis the United States, Europe, the Soviet Union, the Far East, and the United Kingdom. Four of the remaining five chapters cover advisors and ministers, deputy ministers and senior diplomats, defence and foreign policy reviews, and the Trudeau peace initiative. The penultimate chapter offers a rare and insightful “conversation” with Trudeau himself, in which the former prime minister discusses France’s connection with Parti Québécois separatists and Canada’s role as a “junior partner” in NATO, among the other varied and important issues that underpinned his two terms in office (374).
The interviews do not stand alone. Bothwell and Granatstein introduce each chapter with a brief yet detailed historical analysis about the particular policy topic at hand. Short biographical statements also precede each interview, giving the reader just enough contextual information about the interviewee to understand the connection with Trudeau. Collectively, the supplementary text helps familiarize the reader with the foreign policy, trade, and defence issues addressed in the book and navigated by Trudeau during his sixteen years in power. Indeed, Bothwell and Granatstein provide a balanced assessment of Trudeau. The prime minister receives a failing grade in the areas of foreign and defence policy, a reluctant pass on trade, and accolades for his achievements to unify Canadians at home and patriate the Constitution. He botched relations with the United States and Europe, misreading Canada’s limited influence as a middle power on the international stage. At the same time, he oversaw Canada’s recognition of the People’s Republic of China, ignoring US concerns and successfully drawing China away from the Soviet Union. “Inconsistent is the only word to describe the foreign and defence policies of the Trudeau government,” the editors conclude, leaving the reader with an appreciation for the prime minister’s successes and failures (389).
For reasons of space and coherence, Bothwell and Granatstein selected 97 of approximately 180 total interviews for publication. Some of the interviewees make more than one appearance, sharing experiences and recollections across a range of topics. Together, the interviews provided in this volume represent only a portion of the entire collection. The bibliography of Pirouette contains a full list of the conducted interviews, and, according to the editors, researchers can access the complete texts of the interviews in Bothwell’s archival papers at the University of Toronto and in the archives of the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. Only a small selection of the interviews remain closed to researchers, for reasons undisclosed by the editors.
Although Bothwell and Granatstein provide details about the interview process in their introduction, the book lacks an editorial note explaining the methodological approach to transcription. The editors chose not to use a tape recorder, “believing that it inhibited conservation” (3). Instead, they took notes by hand and wrote up a memorandum at the end of each interview. This approach leads the reader to wonder about the specifics of each published interview. Did the interviewees vet the transcribed memorandum of their interviews? If not, exactly which portions of each interview offer a precise reflection of the interviewees’ thoughts and opinions? No reader will question the professional aptitude and ethical standards of Bothwell and Granatstein. Two scholars could not be any better trained or suited to conduct, record, and maintain the interviews that compose this volume. Nevertheless, potential readers ought to know that the interviews are not an exact transcription and may reflect the editors’ interpretation of what each interviewee revealed.
If the alternative meant not having this collection, readers can be thankful for the efforts of Bothwell and Granatstein. The editors devoted substantial time, energy, and resources to organize and interview such a large and important group of policymakers, diplomats, and military officials connected with the Trudeau government. Regardless of the editorial choices underlying the text, Trudeau’s World is a model oral history project that will surely serve as a valuable resource for students and scholars of Canadian policy during the post-1968 Cold War era.