CANADA: From Trudeau to Plain Joe

The Tories win a narrow victory, but they intend to govern like a majority

He had been Canada's Prime Minister for more than eleven years, governing his nation longer than any other contemporary leader in the West. He had become a symbol of Canadian federalism who fought hard against the separatist yearnings of his fellow French Canadians in his native province of Quebec (see box). Swept to power on a wave of "Trudeaumania," he had once seemed the very model of a philosopher-statesman, blessed with an impressive intellect and an acerbic wit—not...