Assess The Reasons Why The Conservatives Lose Power

Assess the reasons why, after a landslide victory in 1958, the Conservatives lost power in 1963. Assess the reasons why Pierre Trudeau was able to remain in power for so Long.

One of reasons that the conservatives win the 958 elections is because they capitalize on the failures of the Liiberals, such as their psh for the American pipeline despite the reservations of many Canadians on American influence in their country. Additionally the leader of the Conservatives, Diefenbaker “seemed to combine the inspiring vision of the prophet, the burning sincwerity of he evangelist, and the annihilating attack of a prosecuting counsel determined on the conviction of a monstrous criminal” (Fellows and Wells, 2013). When the campaigning season came

“ Their policies [ the Conservative party’s] appeared confused and impractical. “ (Fellows and Wells, 2013). This is perhaps most appearant in Diefenbaker’s ambitions to make Canada less dependent on the U.S. economically. Diefenbaker announced an ambitious plan that would allow Canada to move 15% of it’s trade from the U.S. to Britain. Ideally the plan addresses the growing discomfort that Canadian citizens had with the U.S.’s increasing role in their country. The plan was inherently flawed because it would violate the terms of a trade agreement ( General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) from 1947. More importantly though it was also physically impossible because Britain would not be able to import such a percentage of goods to Canada, while it was only 15% of the U.S.’s imports into Canada that would essentially double the amount of imports that Britain was sending into Canada, and Britain would never have an adequate amount of supply to match the demand (Fellows and Wells,

“Trudeaumania swept across Canada…for a few warm spring months in 1968 Pierre Elliot Trudeau synthesized the dreams, achievements, and illusions of the liberation era.” (Fellows and Wells, 2013). Trudeau ran under the slogan of creating “the Just Society” (Fellows and Wells, 2013) in Canada, and unlike Diefenbaker, Trudeau would manage to achieve what he promised the public.

While Trudeau was in office he managed to implement reforms that expanded welfare, enabled parliament to be more efficient, and established true universal healthcare in Canada (Fellows and Wells, 2013) . All of these changes and reform were things that others had promised previous to Trudeau but constantly failed to