The Passing of Gorbachev and What He Meant to Canada

The photo above on the farm of long time Liberal Agriculture Minister Eugene Whelan in 1983 with Alexander Yakovlev and Mikhail Gorbachev chatting about the future. Little did the world know that glasnost had just begun in rural Ontario, Canada.

Russians are usually very hostile to Gorbachev's seven years as the last Soviet leader. The west has felt differently and still does as we learned this week that the former General Secretary of the Communist Party died at age 91. 

The early years for Gorbachev when he was in Politburo and when he took up the leadership of the Soviet Union started out well enough. Most were happy to see a leader who did not look like they were going to die six months into the job. There was also the ongoing Cold War and the fight in Afghanistan and a declining standard of living due to repressive central planning.

The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 upped the ante on the cold war. The United States was still stinging from Vietnam, Watergate and a deep recession with a few oil shocks thrown in for good measure. The Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 pretty much sealed it that the USSR would be regarded as the biggest strategic threat to the west. It was about this time the west saw a more nationalistic rise in politics as well as media.

Conservative governments were being elected everywhere in the west including in Canada. And movies began to reflect a Soviet fear with The Day After, Red Dawn and Amerika along with nationalistic sequels of Rambo and Rocky. Even shows like Family Ties had a conservative role with Michael J. Fox. Pride in country was high but it also came with a muscular posture, especially the U.S. However, even in Canada we were buying CF-18s (a job that ultimately tarnished PCs in Canada).

Canada also boycotted the Olympics in Moscow in 1980. Although many say the Olympics should not be politicized it seems that rewarding belligerence with complicit support only encourages it. Not to be outdone, The Soviet and East Bloc countries boycotted the Olympics in 1984. While the debate about boycotts will always prevail, it should be important to note that sport is not devoid of politics. Funding that is directed at men, cover-ups of drugs, sexual assaults and cheating and all other manner of bad issues are not solved with an attitude of carrying on. It sometimes has taken athletes saying they won't participate till things are fixed.

Suffice to say that the 1980s Cold War was heating up and Canada was right in the middle of it. Still, there were a few cracks from to which to work on a relationship where Canada could carve out a a third way. Most prominent was sport. Canada played the Soviets in 1972 and in various Canada Cups in 1976, 1981, 1984, 1987 and 1991. It is 50 years this year since these hockey series began. While they were a proxy war for the Cold War, real people played and real relationships were created and they changed attitudes that saw Soviet players come to the NHL and North American players go to Russian leagues.

The one area that continued through the cold war was trade. Canadian grains made it overseas and Soviet products made it into Canada. Even at the worst times trade still managed to happened as American and Soviet interests clashed in regional wars, espionage and generally hostile views on the political economy and willingness to interfere with each other's countries. For Canada, it was to take a side during the Russian Civil War in 1918, for the Soviets it was to encourage labour riots in Canada.

By the time Pierre Trudeau got into power, Canada was trying to reach out to deescalate increasingly dangerous provocations. The Afghan invasion by the Soviets made it difficult to make headway in more productive relationships. The elevation of Mikhail Gorbachev to Agriculture Secretary presented Canada with an opportunity when three years of poor crops from 1979 to 1981 led to increased grain sales to the Soviets. In May of 1983, it was beginning to look clear that Gorbachev was a leader to watch in the Politburo and he came to Canada for an extensive 10 day trip and was to address Parliament.

The length of time of the trip was unheard of then and it is unheard of today. Imagine it now. A superpower sends a senior member of government on a free ranging research mission. Canada set the path by having Eugene Whalen head over to Russia in 1981 and meet with Gorbachev for 90 minutes and make a formal invitation. Canada had credibility with the Soviets because it had opened the door to trade with China before Nixon did. And Canada had been increasing grain sales during three awful years of weather for the Soviets.

The man to spearhead Canada's agriculture push was Eugene Whalen. He was a long time Agriculture minister for 12 years with Pierre Trudeau. A giant of a man with a green Stetson. Never quite politically correct but always a populist and always on top of his portfolio. 

It is fair to say that Gorbachev came with a mission. He met all three political leaders of the main parties, saw Parliament with a translation in Russian and toured extensively through farms in Ontario and Alberta. The longtime Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovlev was able to set some misconceptions aside. Gorbachev first thought a grocery store might have been set up with huge amounts of produce there just for his visit. The Ambassador was able to say that any grocery store they would randomly go to would be the same. And he did see that.

During the visit to Whalen's farm, Gorbachev and Yakovlev had some some time just to think and talk as they waited for the minister to return from Ottawa. Whalen's wife told them they could walk around the farm outside and they did. It is the top picture. It is here that glasnost took root according to some. Both men could see Canada had land that was familiar to them, people that felt familiar to them but systems that produced different results.

It wasn't that Canada was perfect. Far from it. The early 1980s was a time of a pretty deep recession and unemployment. Winnipeg had been hammered in 1980 with massive business closures and population leaving for Alberta and B.C. where prospects were better. Much of the manufacturing sector was looking like the rust belt. Interest rates were high and this was coming off years of stagflation. And yet to a Soviet seeing full produce areas and new cars and tractors, it must have been eye opening.

There was real annoyance by allies about Canada reaching out to the Soviets in the 1980s but everything that came after was a result of this contact. Thatcher, Reagan and treaties and opening of the Berlin Wall all originated with a little bit thinking on a Canadian farm field.

I think Canada continued to have a different approach when it came to foreign policy even after Trudeau left. Mulroney continued a measured approach to Gorbachev and the policy on South Africa was tough but open. And often it was ahead of our allies. I'm not sure we can can say that now. We continue to bring in refugees but the pace is so slow. Our military support so timid. And our innovativeness lost.

While Russians might feel Gorbachev let them down, the opportunity lay right at Russia's door to be the most powerful member of the EU, a member of NATO and for the people to be as prosperous as any in Europe. Dreams of an old empire and mistaking corrupt Russian billionaires for state success is not success. Russian businessmen falling out of windows is what it has come down to. And thousands of Russians soldiers dead and a crime to report that it has happened.

What Gorbachev meant to Canada was a chance to see peace and prosperity. And not just for Canada but for Russia too. It still might happen but it is hard to imagine what Putin is thinking trying to re-take all the territory of the Soviet era. To what end? Perhaps a leader emerges sometime in the future that helps Russia achieve greatness that many believe was entirely possible decades ago.