Well, my father was certainly somewhat prejudiced against the longhaired contingent, but my mother tended to sympathize with them.

I think they didn't like the fact that Trudeau was French (and Catholic), they figured he was selling the country out to Quebec, they detested his sophistication and his clearly strong and healthy ego (some might have called him "arrogant", and some did)...it was a whole host of things. They thought he was destroying the country.

At first I went along with them on that, but I only began to fully appreciate Trudeau when I saw the succession of other people who followed him into office! ;-) (Not counting Joe Clark...I always have liked and respected Joe Clark. I think he has always been a very decent man, if not a brilliant one. Trudeau was brilliant.) Also, Nixon referred to him once as "that asshole Trudeau". A big point in Trudeau's favour right there! ;-) Nixon, however, seems to have hated almost everyone, and he used absolutely the most filthy bad language about almost everyone too...so Trudeau was not singled out in that sense.

When asked by Canadian reporters how he felt about Nixon's comment, Trudeau smiled and said, "I've been called worse things by worse men"....now there is a brilliant and quite witty response to the press's typical attempt to raise another tempest in a teapot! ;-) Gotta love the guy.