Style within the centre: Pierre Trudeau,the War Measures Act,and the nature of prime ministerial power

The notion that the prime minister of Canada wields autocratic power is common in popular and academic discourse. Donald Savoie's work on the subject implies that this is an inevitable result of centripetal forces in Canadian politics, combined with a process of centralization that began with Pierre Trudeau in the late 1960s. Peter Aucoin's analysis of the role of prime ministerial management styles, however, suggests that there may be more scope for individual agency than a narrow reading of Savoie implies. An investigation of the decision‐making process in the Trudeau government that led to the invocation of the War Measures Act in October 1970 lends credence to the view that, despite centralizing pressures, the exercise of prime ministerial power is significantly shaped by personal style. This suggests that the putative “elected dictatorship” of the prime minister is not an inevitable consequence of the current institutional configuration of power, as is sometimes suggested.