It appeared that cracks were appearing on Pierre Trudeau’s backbench on this date in 1983. In light of devastating polls that showed Liberals trailing the new Tory leader Brian Mulroney and his party by 55 percent to a paltry 27 per cent for the Grits, six Liberal MPs had called publicly for Trudeau to step aside. One of them was Doug Frith from Sudbury, Ontario. 'The prime minister is going to have to resign. The people want him to retire,'' Frith told the American newspaper.
You can read the Christian Science Monitor’s analysis at this link: www.csmonitor.com/1983/0823/082347.html
Five-months later, on February 29, 1984, Trudeau announced his resignation plans. He was succeeded by John Turner.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.