Was Trudeau a disaster?

The Citizen recently hosted an interesting debate on this issue.

David Frum argues that Trudeau was a disaster.

Lawrence Martin argues that Trudeau was not so bad.

I have to give it to Frum. He was out for blood on this one. His most solid set of arguments attacked Trudeau’s economic and fiscal legacy, from the national energy program, to healthcare, to fiscal policy.

Pierre Trudeau was a spending fool. He believed in a state-led economy, and the longer he lasted in office, the more statist he became. .... Three subsequent important prime ministers — Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper — invested their energies cleaning up the wreckage left by Pierre Trudeau.

On this point, he gets no rebuttal from Martin who concedes: “I’m no fan of his economic record either. But like any PM’s economic record it must be weighed in the context of the time.” All Martin really had to do was show that Trudeau "wasn't so bad." He didn't have to make the case that Trudeau was the best PM ever. It's a pretty weak position, but Martin did an ok job at redeeming some aspects of Trudeau's legacy.

Overall, Martin’s basic point seems to be that Trudeau did a pretty good job as PM in the face of some difficult circumstances. Frum argues that Trudeau basically mishandled everything and that many of the difficult circumstances, like the two recessions, were the result of bad government policy.

What about the Charter of Rights and Freedom? It’s hard to argue that this was a good thing, but I did like Frum’s conclusion:

Defenders of Trudeau’s disastrous governance habitually rally around one great accomplishment: the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Well, Herbert Hoover had some excellent wilderness conservation policies, but we don’t excuse the Great Depression on that account. Would it really have been so impossible to achieve a Charter of Rights without plunging Canada into two recessions, without wrecking the national finances, without triggering two referendums, without nationalizing the oil industry, without driving not only Quebec, but also Alberta to the verge of separation?

Anyway, a good debate. I highly recommend both of these articles.