He was born and raised in Quebec, but it seems Brian Mulroney does not now — and may never have had — a real understanding of Quebec ethnic nationalism.

How else to explain the raft of gaffes in his recently released autobiography, Memoirs: 1939-1993?

Let's begin with his vituperative attacks on Pierre Trudeau, which reveal a basic misunderstanding of the Quebec nationalism of Trudeau's youth and how the war played out in Quebec.

"While Quebecers like Pierre Sévigny were fighting the Nazis and trying to save the Jews of Europe, Trudeau could not care less about the Jews," the former prime minister writes.

It may come as a surprise to Mulroney, but nobody in Quebec — or anybody else in Canada — cared about the Jews being slaughtered in Europe, least of all Pierre Sévigny, war hero that he was.

At that time, Trudeau was, like so many other young Quebecers, a nationalist who dreamed of a separate Quebec, a state that would be all French, all Catholic and corporatist — fascist, if you like.

Trudeau's separatist Quebec had no room for les autres and closely resembled the separatist state envisioned by the Parti Québécois and its one-time leader, Mulroney's old friend Lucien Bouchard (more about him later). It's noteworthy that Mulroney makes no mention of Trudeau's ethnic nationalist roots in his memoirs.

Unlike Trudeau, Mulroney did not understand the gut feeling that Quebec nationalists had about being Québécois. While fluently bilingual, Mulroney was never a Québécois like Wilfrid Laurier, Jean Chrétien or Louis St-Laurent.

Trudeau was both.

And Mulroney's notion that all Quebecers and Canadians, young and old, saw the Second World War as a fight against Nazism and as a way of saving Europe's Jews is hogwash — highly emotional and very unscholarly. Quite simply, saving the Jews from the Nazis was not an issue at all in 1939.

But Mulroney singles out Trudeau in this mistaken argument, calling him a Nazi sympathizer, a racist collaborator or, at best, a coward who refused to serve his country in time of war.

In Quebec in 1939, anti-Semitism was the norm: Trudeau, at age 20, felt no particular sympathies toward the Jews. As well, Trudeau was staunchly anti-British at that time.

At the time of his supposed cowardice, Trudeau was a firebrand Quebec nationalist — very much like Bouchard, whose rabid ethnic nationalism Mulroney would also misread.

Mulroney's assessment of the early Trudeau years fails to take into account Trudeau's experiences at Harvard, and especially at the London School of Economics. There, Trudeau was converted to socialism — and to being a fierce opponent of ethnic-based nationalism — by intellectuals including Harold Laski, the brilliant British political theorist, and historians Hans Kohn and Elie Kedourie.

That's why Trudeau battled against special status for Quebec, deux nations and Mulroney's Meech Lake accord. All three, in Trudeau's view, catered to Quebec racism and separatism.

Nor was Trudeau a coward. Like socialists André Laurendeau and Frank Underhill, Trudeau was ready to go to war, but only if Canada were threatened. He resisted a call by David Lewis, then the national secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the forerunner of the New Democratic Party, for an instant socialist pro-British stance.

The Laurendeau-Underhill-Trudeau response was a respectable one in Canada in 1939. It was neither cowardice nor treachery.

Mulroney is also way off base when he says Bouchard betrayed him.

Mulroney had to be deaf and dumb to Quebec ethnic nationalism not to have recognized the closet separatist his good friend and political ally Bouchard really was. For Bouchard, separatism was an inevitable and essential card to play.

As well, Mulroney is all wet when he says jealousy made Trudeau scuttle Meech Lake.

It was an aboriginal MLA from Manitoba, Elijah Harper, and the premier of Newfoundland, Clyde Wells, who really killed the accord. Trudeau had already said "no" to special status and two nations as preludes to separatism. Meech Lake and the "distinct society" constituted a third path to separatism that had to be fought, too, Trudeau believed.

But perhaps the weirdest thing Mulroney says in his memoirs is that Trudeau was an anti-Semite.

Trudeau's mentors, both socialist and anti-nationalist, were Kohn, Kadourie and Laski — all Jews. And as prime minister, Trudeau appointed many Jews to top positions: Supreme Court chief justice Bora Laskin and Louis Rasminsky, governor of the Bank of Canada, come to mind.

Trudeau liked Jews individually but, unlike Mulroney, was never a Zionist. To Trudeau, Israel was a manifestation of ethnic Jewish nationalism. He angered his Jewish ministers by supporting Lebanon in the 1982 war with Israel.

Mulroney has only hurt his memoirs with his attacks on Trudeau and Bouchard. It's a real pity Trudeau is not alive to give Mulroney the swift kick in his pants his new book really deserves.

Letters

Zolf is not always right, but he certainly is this time.

Very few non-Jewish Canadians who joined the armed services to fight Germany did so because Hitler was exterminating Jews. That is a sad fact that the consummately political Brian Mulroney knows, or should know, and just whom does he think will vote for his favourite party on the basis of such tendentious bull? I was born three years after the war,and have never, to this day, heard a single gentile veteran say he, or she, was, during their service, at all indignant about anti-semitism.

Canadians, for the most part, the great majority of whom were non-Jewish, and very young, fought Germany for king and country. I challenge anyone to cite , in the memoirs of these basically decent, and courageous, people, any regretful mention of Jews, or any other persecuted race or religion. That is because the contemporary Liberal prime minister, Mackenzie King, was as much a self-serving politician as the Conservative Brian Mulroney, and never, ever mentioned anti-semitism as a rationale for following Britain into war.

This governmental behaviour persisted federally, and in all provinces, for a generation after the war. For example, not once, in my twelve years of British Columbia public school, from 1955-67, did any of my dozens of teachers refer to what is now known as the Holocaust. Not one!

The former prime minister frequently astounded us with bad taste, during his lamentable term of office. Now, he has gone too far. Mulroney, shut up.

– David Stein | Toronto

I do share to a certain degree Mr. Zolf analyis of Mr. Mulroney's misconception of Trudeau's evolution in its thinking. Obviously, one doesn't see things the same way at 16, 24 or 40 years old, except for total morons. But I take a little bit as an offence Mr. Zolf's remark abount "anti-semitism" being the norm in Québec in the pre-war years; not that it wasn't present, but it probably wasn't more so than in English-speaking Canada at that time (according to Mr. Zolf, nobody in Canada cared to save the European Jews in 1939, that wasn't the main issue then).

With the same way of thinking, then I could say that Québec-bashing is the norm in English-speaking media in Canada today, and Mr. Zolf would probably disagree.

– Andre | Pierrefonds, Que

Bravo to Larry Zolf's editorial! By clearing away the self-serving brambles of misunderstanding and fiction that Mulroney claims, Zolf sheds true light on Trudeau.

I'm particularly impressed as Western media, with its incredibly short retention span, often softens its stance on the shameful leaders of the past such as Mulroney (though this would apply to the US media's treatment of Nixon in later years as well). Somehow, through the passage of time, the public and media tend to forget the erring and and their contributions are lionized.

Thank you, Mr.Zolf for pointing out this intellectual rubbish! Mulroney was one of the greatest failures as a PM and has done nothing to add to the make-up of our great country except exacerbate tensions among our ethnicities and provide the greatest electoral change in seats for the Conservative Party in 1993. Case closed.

–Sina Kachooie | North York, Ontario

I,too, have been much troubled by Mulroney's comments regarding Trudeau "anti-semitism".

Recently, I visited the Holocaust Memorial in Boston and came across the following engraving: "By late 1942, the United States and its allies were aware of the death camps, but did nothing to destroy them".

I believe this quote illustrates the temper of the times, a fact which Mulroney consistently resists acknowledging in his quest for historical revisionism.

– Richard Frizell | Vancouver, B.C.

Mr. Mulroney, has taken away any opportunity he had to make himself great in the years to come. He just sounds like an embittered 'old man'.

Trudeau at 20, was 20. He was young, and had things to learn. He did not feel connected to England, and like a lot of Quebecers, was not going to fight for England. Others, like my father, felt connected with England, and went to fight.

However, what we believe when we are 20, we do not believe when we are older. My father was 26, not 20 when he went to war. How young 20 is when I look at 20 year olds these days.

I remember what I believed and what I thought when I was 20, and have seen how I have changed over the years.

– A. E. Brittain | Toronto

Bob Presner pointed me to your piece about Pierre Trudeau. It is nice to see my father remembered - but Trudeau gets none of the credit for his appointment. Dad was in fact appointed by Diefenbaker in the wake of the dustup between his predecessor Jim Coyne and the then Tory government. Trudeau had nothing to do with it.

Trudeau was subsequently PM during my father's tenure as governor. Dad had great respect for Trudeau but found him profoundly uninterested in economic issues.

– Michael Rasminsky | Montreal

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