nafta was the absolute last thing that the elder trudeau set in motion before he was forced to resign (the open secret in canada is that reagan was convinced he was a communist and forced him to step down over his opposition to missile defence). he set up a commission in the last months of his rule - called the macdonald commission, as it was head by a liberal bureaucrat called donald macdonald (condolences for the name.) - that recommended that canada aggressively seek a new reciprocity deal with the united states.

trudeau himself was picking up the legacy of wilfrid laurier, who was his biggest ideological influence in governing.

the macdonald commission's report was eventually picked up by the next elected prime minister (brian mulroney), who tends to be the popular face of free trade in canada. but, this was continuity: he was carrying forward with something that trudeau put in motion.

the immensely superior bilateral fta was signed first, and then nafta superseded it afterwards. it was jean chretien that signed nafta, but he was clear that he felt he had no choice. the elder trudeau was vociferously opposed to all of this, as he felt that what mulroney came up with was the literal opposite thing of what he intended.

the liberals in general - not just the elder trudeau -  presented a large number of very cogent criticisms of the fta and then nafta through the 80s and early 90s, while maintaining support for actual reciprocity. most of what they said has proven rather prophetic, although they weren't ever able to find a way out of what mulroney left around our collective necks.

nobody expected that trudeau would be his father. but, it would be nice if his handlers would at least bother to read what he wrote about free trade with the united states, as it is quite lengthy and rather insightful.

as it is, trudeau 2.0 is under serious threat of going down in history as mulroney the younger.