Woodrow Wilson vs Pierre Trudeau

[August1991]

Leftists?

I am on the right - I favour individual freedom and slow change - but I have an open mind. And I have opinions of the Left. those progessives who want to change individuals radically.

I happen to think that Canada's Left is far better than America's Left. (eg. Pierre Fortin vs Paul Krugman)

America's Left - supposedly intellectual, sophisticated, on a coast - can be, well: really stupid.

IMHO, Wilson was American stupid; Trudeau, as much as I despise him, never.

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Trudeau vs. Wilson?

Edited July 2, 2015 by August1991

[bush_cheney2004]

President Wilson, if only because he had to engage more challenging domestic and international issues while in office. Trudeau was able to stage a comeback, while Wilson's tenure was shortened by poor health (stroke victim). Wilson actually set the stage for another "progressive" president...FDR.

Prime Minister Trudeau may have been just as important a figure to/in Canada, but he had/has no equivalent "Wilsonian" cult of personality.

Just for fun, PM Trudeau never got his mug on one of these:

[Topaz]

Have you ever seen TWO party leader govern the same way??? Most have their own way of doing things, while trying to staying within party lines. For example, Harper's not one for the environment but Mulroney was, but then again, is Harper really a Conservative or a Reformer saying he's a Conservative.??

[August1991]

President Wilson, if only because he had to engage more challenging domestic and international issues while in office.

WTF? Trudeau, like Lincoln, faced dissolution of a federal state. Wilson never faced such a domestic problem.

Unlike FDR and Bush Jnr, no one attacked the US while Wilson was president.

At most, Wilson - like Bush Snr and Mulroney - dealt with extraordinary events abroad.

Edited July 3, 2015 by August1991

[August1991]

Have you ever seen TWO party leader govern the same way??? Most have their own way of doing things, while trying to staying within party lines. For example, Harper's not one for the environment but Mulroney was, but then again, is Harper really a Conservative or a Reformer saying he's a Conservative.??

And no two singers sing the same song the same way. Indeed, some buskers in the underground passage where I pass now sing songs that I barely recocgnize.

But some singers can cover an original and somehow improve it. Compare Whitney Houston with Dolly Parton.

Edited July 3, 2015 by August1991

[August1991]

In my OP, here's what I was primarily thinking about:

The Left, in North America in particular, now calls itself Progressive which I suppose means that it is moving the world/people in the good/correct/civilized direction.

In his time, Wilson thought that "national self-determination" was a good, progressive thing. As a result, the Austrian-Hungary Empire dissolved and became various countries, individual States based on common language, religion.

Trudeau, OTOH and born in Montreal, argued that a progressive State was multicultural and even multilingual; a civilized State is like Austria-Hungary since it includes people of different religions who, possibly, cannot speak to one another in a common language yet they form a single civilized country.

So, I guess that my first point is that Trudeau and Wilson -while supposedly progressive in their time- seem to have different views on "progress".

My Opinion: I'm inclined to think that Trudeau was correct and Wilson was wrong. The Austrian-Hungarian State of the late 19th century is the world's 21st century future. Like it or not, we have to live together. The EU is the modern/21st century resurrection of what Wilson-the-progressive thought was backward and tried to destroy.

Edited July 3, 2015 by August1991

[bush_cheney2004]

My Opinion: I'm inclined to think that Trudeau was correct and Wilson was wrong. The Austrian-Hungarian State of the late 19th century is the world's 21st future. Like it or not, we have to live together. The EU is the modern/21st century resurrection of what Wilson-the-progressive thought was backward and tried to destroy.

But Wilson had to face such challenges in real time when a lot more was at stake. Trudeau was just playing politics in Canada, trying to keep the lid on in Quebec and screw western Canada at the same time.

From a practical point of view, Wilson had to destroy the status quo in Europe to "progress" to anything new/different.