Book Review: The Trudeau Papers

Book Review: 'The Trudeau Papers' by Ian Adams

5 / 5 Stars

'The Trudeau Papers' (108 pp.) was published in hardcover by McClellan and Stewart, Ltd., Toronto, in 1971. As far as I can tell, no paperback edition ever was released.

Canada's Liberal Elite always has viewed the United States with suspicion and skepticism, but it was during the 1960s that this suspicion blossomed into outright detestation, aided in part by the Vietnam War. The attitude of the Liberal Elite is best summed up in the lyrics to the Guess Who song American Woman, from 1970:

I don't need your war machines

I don't need your ghetto scenes

Colored lights can hypnotize

Sparkle someone else's eyes

Now woman, get away from me

American woman, mama let me be

'The Trudeau Papers' is a prime example of the Canadian Left's paranoia toward the U.S. Its author, Ian Adams (b. 1937) has written a number of Cold War-era thriller novels, some of which posit collusion and conspiracy between the Canadian government and the CIA.

'Trudeau' is framed as the first-person narrative of a Canadian man named Alan Jarvis. The novel eschews formal chapters in favor of being divided into segments, ranging from a half page to several pages in length, that serve as commentaries and diary entries. These constitute the eponymous 'papers' that Jarvis intends to bequeath to the Canadian public. 

'Trudeau' is set in late 1975 or early 1976. In its opening segments, Soviet and American ICBMs armed with H-bombs have accidentally detonated over Canada (the circumstances under which this happens are more than a little contrived, and the novel's major weak point). Edmonton, and a sizeable tract of Sasketchewan, are turned into cinders, and over a million people die from the explosions or the resultant fallout.

Under the pretext of helping their stricken neighbors to the North, the U.S. Canadian Military Assistance Program (CANMAP) sends large numbers of troops into Canada, seizing control of major metropolitan areas. Canada's resource-based industries are obliged to operate under American supervision, with the revenue diverted south of the border instead of to the desperate citizens of Canada. 

As atrocities mount, and what is left of Canadian sovereignty evaporates, it is up to bands of resistance fighters to conduct guerilla warfare to liberate Canada from its oppression at the hands of the Yankee Capitalists. As Alan Jarvis soon discovers, the fighting will be costly and without mercy, and the outnumbered and ill-equipped freedom fighters will find themselves the weaker party in many engagements.

But as Jarvis is to learn, in the struggle for liberation, personal sacrifices on the part of the members of the Resistance cannot always be avoided...........

'The Trudeau Papers' is a very readable novel, and a successful manifestation of 'Yankee-phobia' (upon its publication, the book apparently caused a sensation in Canadian circles). 

Author Adams uses a clipped, declarative prose style that works well in evoking the horrors of nuclear devastation, and the brutality (which deliberately evokes the American 'pacification' operations conducted during the Vietnam War) visited upon hapless Canucks by the U.S. military. The book is relentlessly bleak in its outlook, and a 'happy' ending is by no means assured.

The verdict ? 'The Trudeau Papers' is a polemic, of course, but an engrossing one. While those few copies still available can have steep asking prices, if you see this book for sale for a reasonable price, it's worth picking up.