When Fascism Arrived in the Liberal Party

There are many definitions of fascism. The one I'll use is by Alfredo Rocco, an ex-Marxist and Minister of Justice in Italy during the 1930's.

Alfredo Rocco

Wikipedia says Alfredo Rocco spoke of fascism constituting a "conservative revolution that supported orderly and controlled political change to be carried out by elites who would create policy while resisting pluralism, independent initiative, and attempts at political change by the masses."

All right, now let's switch to page 171 of Trudeau and Our Times, Vol. II by Christina McCall & Stephen Clarkson.This book is a gold mine of missed observations, including the one I'm about to make. Here goes:

Ironically, Pitfield's process represented the kind of government by technocracy Lalonde and Trudeau had talked about as a logical solution to chronic Canadian problems before they came to power. They had observed with scorn the muddling-through that characterized the governments of Diefenbaker and Perason. In their view the shameless manipulation of elected ministers by their mandarins, dismaying casual policy-making carried out in the bureaucracy, and the crisis-driven decision-making in cabinet that characterized those regimes made a mockery of democratic accountability and managerial rationality. Lalonde and Trudeau had determined to transform Canada by applying advanced technology and scientific investigation to government.

Ah yes, the English always 'muddling through' as opposed to the French way of doing things; using technology and science applied by a political elite.

How does this differ from Rocco's view that the state should "create policy while resisting pluralism, independent initiative, and attempts at political change by the masses?" Well, obviously, it doesn't. The very thing Mark Lalonde and Pierre Trudeau didn't like about Ottawa was that it responded to the masses (democracy) and was not driven by ideology (casual policy-making).

Earlier in the book, it's made clear that when Trudeau and his friends arrived in the Liberal Party they weren't Liberals:

In effect, Trudeau and his comrades, Marchand and Pelletier, aided by Marc Lalonde, hijacked the Liberal Party in 1968. 'We weren't Liberals,' Marchand frankly admitted later, 'but we decided to use the Liberal Party.'

I suggested in the post linked to above they were Marxists, but top-down policy making is not the exclusive preserve of Marxists; it is also a key organizational feature of fascism.

Where would the four Quebeckers have picked up these ideas?  The answer is, of course, in Quebec during the Second World War. The province was distinctly pro-Vichy and Trudeau himself went public during the war against conscription.

So we have fascist ideas of governance being advanced by someone who deplored English non-idelogical government; someone who came of age during the pro-Vichy, and thus pro-fascist,  enthusiasm of the 1940's in Quebec.

I think when the four Quebec friends arrived in Ottawa in 1968 is when fascism arrived in the Liberal Party where, in my opinion, it still resides.

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If you'd like to read more about Trudeau and the fascist impulse, here's The Man of Three Cloaks.