In recent years there has been a wide recognition of the passivity of Canadian civil society. How enlivening it has been to observe, and even be part of, the amazing public response to the death of Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Many commentators and ordinary citizens have tried to account for the depth and breadth of this response, and I would like to add my piece.

The wave of appreciation and mourning for Mr. Trudeau arose, at least partly I believe, from people's realization that the vision of Canada which he articulated and personified is at serious risk. As Frances Russell wrote in her weekly column of October 6 in the Winnipeg Free Press, "Mr. Trudeau dreamed a great dream: a strong, united, bilingual multicultural Canada, where all would be equal before the law and in opportunity; a strong central government able to speak to and for all Canadians. . . ." He also held up the image of a "Just Society," and while he was not nearly as effective in promoting this objective as he was in promoting the others, yet it was part of his dream. And most of a whole generation shared his dream, and supported measures to try to bring it into being. Since then a new generation has been battered into a fearful passivity by the new global economic forces which are tearing the social fabric and choking our best public institutions. Mr. Trudeau's death has brought to life the dream we once shared, and made us aware of the loss we have sustained at the hands of the "anti-liberal, decentralized and anti-nationalist forces within Canada that have ruled unchallenged for the last 16 years " (again quoting Frances Russell).

In his eulogy Justin Trudeau remembered his father reading to his children from the Bible in the out-of-doors. I can imagine that one of the passages read was from the prophet Micah: "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (6:8) There is life in this vision. In the current competitive money-driven "vision" that has the world in its thrall there is only death.

Once again the Chretien government have sent us to the polls early, for the main reason that they think this is the best time to get re-elected. Government by expediency.

Right there is the big difference between the politics of even so recent a time as the l970s and the politics of now. Once upon a time governments and parties came to the people with a real vision they intended to implement, not expediency dressed as vision, to be abandoned at convenience after the election.

In our editorial, opposite, Doug McMurtry suggests that the main reason for the enormous swell of grief at the passing of former Prime Minister Trudeau is that it marks the passing of an era for which we long: when politics meant something--and meant justice. Before the decline into appearances and tactics.

As a result of this decline, cynicism and its twin, apathy, have settled upon the people! (This is a worldwide phenomenon.) Ironically both those responses serve the Emperor. Real democracy is low on an Emperor's priorities. Awkwardly,however, the Emperor, even in a spurious democracy where elections are won with money, requires our votes to clothe him with a little brief authority. So we are in an

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