Article content

Like father, like son, the old adage goes. It’s rarely been truer than in the case of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and his son. Pierre was once asked for his views on democracy and communism, and stated that a one-party state would be the ideal government under certain conditions. That might sound familiar.

Added Pierre: “I wouldn’t be prepared to think I would be successful in arguing that (communism) for Canada at the present time. But such times might come, who knows?” Five decades later, here’s his son, Justin Trudeau: “You know, there’s a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime.”

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Gwyn Morgan: Turns out Justin Trudeau is more like Pierre than we feared Back to video

Of course, the reason for that direct economic power is China’s command-and-control economy, wherein the government owns or controls the vast majority of businesses. For Trudeau the elder and Trudeau the younger, admiration of communism is seen in actions that diminish private-sector investment in favour of public spending, along with social policies that discourage or prohibit ways of thinking not aligned with their “progressive” beliefs.