Trudeau

Pierre Trudeau served 4 terms as Canada's Prime Minister between 1969 and 1984.
He placed a greater priority on Canada’s relations with China
which led to establishment of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 1970.
In 1973, Trudeau became the first Canadian Prime Minister to visit China.

CANADA'S RED TRUDEAU

Mr. Trudeau told the wife of U.S. chargé d'affaires
that he was a Communist and then went on to
criticize the U.S. and praise the Soviet Union.

Trudeau a 'showoff,' diplomat told U.S
Claiming to be a Communist showed his 'desire to shock'
Elizabeth Thompson, CanWest News Service, May 21, 2003

A top Canadian diplomat told the United States that Pierre Trudeau was "a showoff" and "an individual not possessing much common sense," in a bid to allay concerns that Communists had infiltrated the Canadian government, according to secret U.S. State Department documents.

In a two-page Memorandum of Conversation dated May 7, 1952, a U.S. State Department official recounts a conversation with George Ignatieff, then second-in-command at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, who approached him to discuss Mr. Trudeau's "indiscreet" behaviour at a conference in Moscow.

"The Canadians describe him as young and adventurous with a desire to travel and as an individual not possessing much common sense," wrote H. Raynor, director of the State Department's British North America section. The Memorandum of Conversation was classified "secret security information" for more than 50 years until it was declassified following a request from the Montreal Gazette.

The document sheds new light on Canada's relations with the U.S. during the Cold War and the McCarthy era -- a period when the U.S. was obsessed with fighting communism. It could also help explain why the Federal Bureau of Investigation accumulated a voluminous file on the former prime minister.

It all began when Mr. Trudeau, then 32, decided to attend an economic conference in the Soviet Union. In what Canadian chargé d'affaires Robert Ford later described as "an infantile desire to shock," Mr. Trudeau told the wife of U.S. chargé d'affaires Hugh Cumming that he was a Communist and a Catholic, then went on to criticize the U.S. and praise the Soviet Union.

Concerned that the incident involving a former Privy Council employee would undermine U.S. estimates of Canada's security, Mr. Ignatieff was dispatched in what appears to be a pre-emptive strike.

"In view of certain indiscreet remarks and perhaps behaviour while at Moscow, the Canadians imagine we may receive a report from our Embassy about his activity," wrote Mr. Raynor. "The Canadians desire us to know that he is not considered a security risk in Ottawa. While he was formerly employed in the Privy Council's Office, it was in a minor capacity and the Canadians state that he had no access to classified information."

Mr. Ignatieff described Mr. Trudeau as "an individual of neutralist sentiments" and did not say whether Mr. Trudeau was a Communist.

"Mr. Ignatieff said that he did not know whether or not in fact he was a Communist."

Ottawa historical researcher Christopher Cook, who uncovered Mr. Ford's memo to the Canadian government about the incident, said the U.S. might have kept the State Department document secret to protect the Canadian government.

"They might have felt that they were protecting the Canadian government from embarrassment about the fact that they approached the U.S. government on Canadian citizens and this issue of whether they can be trusted or not."

Canada Top Executive on concerns with China, by Eric Lam, Financial Post, Sep 16, 2009
The world will be watching how Canada reacts to a Chinese energy company's $1.9-billion investment in Athabasca Oil Sands Corp., the chief executive of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada said yesterday. Yuen Pau Woo, head of the foundation, said in a speech at a Toronto business forum that getting the deal approved will send a strong message that Canada is ready and serious about working with the emerging power of China. "An important test ahead is this proposed deal," he said. "[Federal Finance Minister Jim] Flaherty was in Beijing recently, and he was quoted as saying Canada was open to Chinese investment. His words will be put to the test. The world will be watching." At the end of August, Petro-China Company Ltd., a subsidiary of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., announced it was buying a 60% interest in two of Athabasca's undeveloped properties in Alberta, the largest investment from China to date. The two companies expect the deal to be closed by Oct. 31. Thomas d'Aquino, chief executive of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, said he understood the concerns Canadians have with foreign investment, especially from China. "[There is] the issue of Chinese investment, that the long arm of China will reach out and grab Canada's crown jewels," he said in a speech just before Mr. Woo. "But the only solution to prosperity is open borders." Mr. d'Aquino served former prime minister Pierre Trudeau as a special assistant when he ventured to China in 1970 and established diplomatic relations with the Communist power, and said the two countries now have an opportunity to build on that early foundation. "Think of the bold commitment of Trudeau and how long ago that was," he said. "I think relations are on a firmer footing than they have been in the past few years, but we need to do a lot more." Mr. Woo noted that with PetroChina's parent CNPC getting a US$30-billion loan from the China Development Bank for overseas expansion, Canada will have no choice but to embrace Asian power. "Chinese investment is on the rise and here to stay," he said.

CANADA'S KISSINGER & TRUDEAU (... Ivan Head, who has died at the age of 74, was the foreign affairs advisor to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, known in the 1960s and '70s as Canada's Henry Kissinger. Head was a key player in Canada's recognition of the People's Republic of China in 1970. That was two years before Kissinger helped President Richard Nixon visit China, though official American recognition came later....)

CF-18 drops bomb on Yellowknife (while on way to watch Russian military exercises in Artic). CalgaryHerald, Jun 19, 2004. Go to RUSSIAN WAR GAMES ANYONE?

TRUDEAU & CHINA (Trudeau served 4 terms as Canada’s PM between 1969 and 1984... maintained strong interest in China. In 1949, he travelled through China in the tumultuous months before the establishment of the People’s Republic... returned to China again in 1959 with his colleague Jacques Hebert, a visit chronicled in their 1961 book Two Innocents in Red China. After becoming PM in 1968, he placed a greater priority on Canada’s relations with China which led to establishment of diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China in 1970. In 1973, Pierre Trudeau became the first Canadian Prime Minister to visit China.

Machiavellian charade continues (Trudeau's true record must not be hidden behind platitudes of the ignorant), by Paul Jackson, Canadian Press, October 8, 2000