While we are in the process of scrubbing our history clean, and exorcising all reminders of our former leaders’ ugly pasts — Sir John A. Macdonald, Edward Cornwallis, and all the other warts on our moral sensibilities — why not remove Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s name from the international airport in Montreal?

And everywhere else, for that matter.

If we are continuing on the path of historical sanitation, then why not get a jump on future generations before they judge us as failing to be pro-active in an era of supposedly principled pro-activity?

So, off with Pierre Trudeau’s figurative head.

If his son Justin, the current prime minister, objects to this progressiveness, then he is not a true progressive.

His father, after all, was not without dictatorial moves. He had no qualms removing the liberties of all Canadians by invoking the War Measure’s Act, and having the armed forces patrolling our streets in tanks.

Over what?

A small band of FLQ activists who killed a Quebec cabinet minister and kidnapped a British diplomat?

In reflection, it was kindergarten stuff when compared to today’s uncertainty and fears that ISIS has some Canadian cell of twisted homegrown jihadists waiting to unleash their lunacy on all of us.

Pierre Trudeau decided not to serve in the Second World War and, according to many stories, rode his motorcycle around Montreal while wearing a 19th-century Prussian army helmet.

And he was a deep appreciator of communists like Mao, Stalin and Castro.

In a biography written by John English, a noted academic and former Liberal cabinet minister, we learned that, while in university, Trudeau wrote a play steeped in anti-Semitic themes, and opposed the entry of Jewish refugees into Canada.

Compare this to his son, who admitted during the election campaign to sharing an appreciation of China’s form of government, as well as admiring Castro. He also tweeted out that Canada had a welcome mat for all refugees, obviously including those who have arrived paperless through the back door of unmanned border crossings.

Conservative writer David Frum has documented how Pierre Trudeau travelled to visit Josef Stalin’s Soviet Union after the war to participate in regime-sponsored propaganda events, wrote praising prose about Mao’s arguably murderous tenure in China, and admired Castro to no end.

When a Soviet coup of the Lech Walesa-led Solidarity movement in Poland was being considered in 1981, for example, and then activated, Trudeau said hours later: “If martial law is a way to avoid civil war and Soviet intervention, then I cannot say it is all bad.”

He then added: “Hopefully the military regime will be able to keep Solidarity from excessive demands.”

This is hardly a statement from a political leader who believes in democracy and the evolving will of the people.

Pierre Trudeau became prime minister at a time when the economy seemed to be on a positive roll, and then he saddled it with a previously unheard-of amount of debt and deficit as if money grew on trees.

And then there was the disaster of Petro-Canada, followed by the wage-and-price controls Trudeau claimed he would never invoke, all capped with the National Energy Program, arguably the worst economic decision made by any politician in the 20th century.

It bristles to this day.

Yet, among today’s progressives, and those who elected his son on the way to resurrecting the myth, Pierre Trudeau remains beloved.

History cannot be changed, but it can be tricked.

Future generations may not be so kind, as John A. Macdonald has found out.

markbonokoski@gmail.com