November 2000
by Barry Stagg
This is a column about the snobbish disciples of the late Pierre Trudeau. The man himself is gone into history and Canadian legend. His followers lurk in the mediocrity of politics and the media.
Heather Mallick is a writer with the Globe and Mail. She wrote book reviews for the Toronto Sun for years before joining this 'national' newspaper. She tells us she lived in Port aux Basques when Trudeau came through for an election rally in 1972. This is how she describes it:
" Channel-Port-aux-Basques, Nfld., isn't a place you visit, it's a ferry landing you pass through on your way to the glories of Corner Brook, or in the other direction, Isle aux Morts and Burgeo. It was 1972, I was 12 years old and Pierre Trudeau visiting with his bride, Margaret, was the biggest thing since, well, it was the biggest thing. His plane had landed; he was going to be speaking at the arena and my parents, New Democrats turned momentarily Liberal, of course would be taking us to see him. It was important, they said."
Apparently, Mallick's daddy was a doctor posted in the area but destined for a more permanent stay in the urban confines of Kapuskasing, Ontario. Presumably, they stuck around the ferry docks long enough to see the Liberals scrape out a minority government on the evening of October 30, 1972. Don Jamieson was returned handily for the Liberals in the Mallicks' riding of the moment.
Mallick's Globe testimonial was typical of the rapturous outbursts of central Canadian writers upon the death of the late prime minister. Salutes to the many ways in which he made the privileged feel privileged came from every direction. Mallick's syrupy contribution was this compound nugget:
"When we complain about politicians now -- Stock Boy with that tiny little bump in his ridiculous wetsuit, the false and cunning Blair, the moronic Dubya, that golf pro running Ontario -- we're saying we miss Trudeau's boldness, his vast reading, his continuing adherence to the values of the young, his habit of walking alone in the snow when he had a decision to make."
With Mallick's withering pen producing such scornful prose, perhaps Brian Tobin should be glad that she grew up and went to work in Ontario rather than on the southwest coast. If Mike Harris is Mallick's "golf pro running Ontario", what would she call Mr. Tobin? What did that fellow do before he went political, anyway?
I have no doubt that the Newfoundland premier would fare quite well in an interview with the talented Ms. Mallick, given her sycophantic capacity expressed so vividly toward the dearly departed prime minister. The premier is a notorious sponge for this sort of coverage and surely he could master the minor art of being interviewed by such a 'national ' journalist.
The gales of November will be upon Port aux Basques and the whole coast -Grand Bruit, Burgeo, La Poile and Petites included- when this column hits the newsstands. I only wish that some of Mallick and her fellow travellers could experience the formidable sensation of a winter storm on the coast and get the same feeling of being Canadian from that majestic fury as they apparently did from being fans and groupies of the Liberal Party's greatest invention.