He made the mistake 20 years ago, and he
has made the same mistake now. Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has
always been too concerned about his place in history, jeopardizing the
coverage of his actions in the evening newscast.
Pierre Trudeau, his political nemesis,
contrary to what many believe, loved the medium, not to be confused with
his disdain for journalists. Trudeau knew he needed the medium, not the
news media, to get to the people, so he separated the media in two
parts: the medium and the journalists. In doing so he “removed” the
medium from the hands of journalists, creating a symbiosis between him
and the medium and, together, went to the people.
It was a powerful combination and
journalists had no choice but to jump onto the bandwagon, becoming
cheerleaders of the new “phenomenon.” The symbol of Trudeau’s legacy of
strong leadership and charisma is in his famous two words during
the Québec crisis: “Watch me!” I invite
everybody to listen to the whole clip on the exchange between Trudeau
and Tim Ralfe of CBC and Peter Reilly of CJONTV, on Oct. 13, 1970, and,
and you will see who the real winners of that exchange were. Mr. Trudeau
built his political career on that statement, while the journalists were
completely ignored.
Brian Mulroney, on the other hand, made
the same separation but, instead of concentrating his effort on the
medium, tried to manipulate journalists and failed miserably for three
main reasons.
First, we, the journalists, are doing a
good job in manipulating ourselves and we don’t need external help.
Second, we write about news, not
history. The difference is huge; it’s the same difference between a
picture and a movie. A picture might be wonderful, but it doesn’t give
you the whole story. It’s a frame. History needs more frames and more
time before it expresses a judgment on people or events. You can’t write
history with interviews on CTV.
Third, history expresses its judgment
when personal feelings have long evaporated.
It is definitely not influenced by the
opinion of one of the individuals involved in the dispute while the
other one is dead.
In writing this I do not imply that Mr.
Mulroney is wrong. In fact I believe that
his legacy as prime minister is superior
to the one of Mr. Trudeau. The former Liberal leader got more than he
deserved from his media coverage and Mr. Mulroney much, much less, and
things will change. It has already started, for example, when
environmentalists recognize Mulroney has the “greener” prime minister of
our time.
History, I believe, will correct the
judgment about two of the most successful prime ministers in Canada in
the last century, but we have to let it work on its own devices. Mr.
Mulroney is too eager to correct the wrongs of the past, and it is not
up to him to do so. In fact, every time he ventures into doing that, the
process becomes longer.
