“Since the last federal election, the parliamentary system has slowly, but definitely, deteriorated to make way for, what seems to be a republican type government headed by a president,” the student thundered at Trudeau. “The person in the position of prime minister has seen it justifiable and necessary to erode the duties of the MP to a point of almost complete irrelevance in the everyday decisions of the country.”

“A complete contempt for the parliamentary system and the duties and privileges of the opposition parties was evident in the introduction of closure as a feasible tool of a majority government in making Parliament more relevant to the needs of the Canadian people,” the strongly-written letter continued. “In his bids to increase parliamentary efficiency, the prime minister has increased his own personal power while failing to submit himself to the various checks and limits characteristically surrounding the president in a republican system. It is possible, of course, that our prime minister has, in his concern for the country, overlooked these essential means of control over the "first among equals." If such is the case, then Mr. Trudeau as an intelligent man will now introduce legislation which will ensure that these new powers will not be abused.”

The student who penned the letter? Her name was Maureen McTeer, who would later become the spouse of the Rt. Hon. Joe Clark. She would stand for Parliament herself almost 20-years-later, running for the Progressive Conservatives in the 1988 election.