'Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau',
PC,
CC,
CH,
QC,
MA,
LLD,
FRSC (
18 October,
1919 â
28 September,
2000), usually known as 'Pierre Trudeau' or 'Pierre Elliott Trudeau', was the fifteenth
Prime Minister of Canada from
20 April,
1968 to
4 June,
1979, and from
3 March,
1980 to
30 June,
1984.
Trudeau was a charismatic figure who, from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s, dominated the Canadian political scene and aroused passionate reactions. "He haunts us still,"
biographers Christina McCall and Stephen Clarkson wrote. Admirers praise the force of Trudeau's intellect. They salute his political acumen in preserving national unity and establishing the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms within Canada's constitution. Detractors fault Trudeau for poor administrative practices, arrogance, and lack of understanding of Canada outside Quebec. Nevertheless, few would dispute that Trudeau was a towering figure who helped redefine Canada.
Trudeau led Canada through some of its most tumultuous times and was often the centre of controversy. Known for his flamboyance, he dated celebrities, sometimes wore
sandals in the
House of Commons, was
accused of using an obscenity during debate there, and once did a
pirouette behind the back of
Queen Elizabeth II.
Trudeau was the first Canadian Prime Minister born in the 20th century, as well as the first Prime Minister of Canada to be divorced.
Early life and career
Born in
Montreal to
Charles-Ămile Trudeau, a wealthy
French Canadian businessman and lawyer, and Grace Elliott, who was of French and
Scottish descent.
[1] Trudeau attended the prestigious
CollÚge Jean-de-Brébeuf (a private French Roman Catholic school) where he was affiliated with the ideas of
clerical fascism and
Quebec nationalism. According to long-time friend and colleague
Marc Lalonde the contemporary clerically influenced dictatorships of
AntĂłnio de Oliveira Salazar in
Portugal and
Francisco Franco in
Spain along with that of
Marshal PĂ©tain in
Vichy France were seen as models to many young intellectuals educated at elite
Jesuit schools in
Quebec. Lalonde asserts that Trudeau's later intellectual development as an "intellectual rebel, anti-establishment fighter on behalf of unions and promoter of religious freedom" was a product of his experiences once he left Quebec to study in the United States, France and England and travel the world, an experience which allowed him to break from Jesuit influence and study French philosophers such as
Jacques Maritain and
Emmanuel Mounier as well as
John Locke and
David Hume.
[2]
Trudeau earned a law degree at the
Université de Montréal in 1943, followed by a master's in political economy at
Harvard. During his attendance at the Université de Montréal, Trudeau was conscripted into the Army, like thousands of other Canadian men, as part of the National Resources Mobilization Act. He joined the Canadian Officers Training Corps and served with other conscripts in Canada. Conscripted soldiers were not liable for overseas military service until after the
crisis of late 1944. He said he was willing to become involved in the war, but he believed that to do so would be to turn his back on a Quebec population he considered to have been betrayed by the
King government. Trudeau reflected on his opposition to conscription and his doubts about the war in his 1993 ''Memoirs'': "So there was a war? Tough. ... if you were a French Canadian in Montreal in the early 1940s, you did not automatically believe that this was a just war ... we tended to think of this war as a settling of scores among the superpowers."
[3]
In a 1942
Outremont by-election, he campaigned for the Quebec anti-conscription candidate
Jean Drapeau, and was eventually expelled from the Officers' Training Corps for lack of discipline. The National Archives of Canada, in its biographical sketches of Canadian prime ministers, records how on one occasion during the war Trudeau and his friends drove their motorcycles wearing Prussian military uniforms, complete with pointed steel helmets.
[4] After the war, he attended
Harvard, the ''
Institut d'Ă©tudes politiques de Paris'' in 1946-47, and spent the following year at the
London School of Economics.
From the late 1940s through the mid-1960s, Trudeau was primarily based in Montreal and was seen by many as an intellectual. In 1949, he was an active supporter of workers in the
Asbestos Strike. In 1956, he edited an important book on the subject, ''La grĂšve de l'amiante'', which argued that the strike was a seminal event in Quebec's history, marking the beginning of resistance to the conservative,
francophone clerical establishment and
anglophone business class that had long ruled the province. Throughout the 1950s, Trudeau was a leading figure in the opposition to the repressive rule of
Premier of Quebec Maurice Duplessis as the founder and editor of ''
Cité Libre'', a dissident journal that helped provide the intellectual basis for the
Quiet Revolution.
Trudeau was interested in
Marxist ideas in the late 1940s. Although he self-identified as a
socialist, he never fully endorsed the
social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party â which became the
New Democratic Party - remaining skeptical of their ideas about Quebec. From 1949 to 1951 Trudeau worked briefly in the
Privy Council Office of the Liberal Prime Minister
Louis St. Laurent as an economic policy advisor. During the 1950s, he was
blacklisted by the United States and prevented from entering that country because of a visit to a conference in Moscow (where he was arrested for throwing a snowball at a statue of
Stalin) and because he subscribed to a number of leftist publications. Trudeau later appealed the ban and it was rescinded.
An associate professor of law at the Université de Montréal from 1961 to 1965, Trudeau's views evolved towards a liberal position in favour of individual rights counter to the state and made him an opponent of
Québec nationalism. In economic theory he was influenced by professors
Joseph Schumpeter and
John Kenneth Galbraith while he was at Harvard. Trudeau criticized the
Liberal Party of
Lester Pearson when it supported arming
Bomarc missiles in Canada with nuclear warheads. Nevertheless, he was persuaded to join the party in 1965, together with his friends
GĂ©rard Pelletier and
Jean Marchand. These "three wise men" ran successfully for the Liberals in the
1965 election. Trudeau himself was elected in the safe Liberal riding of
Mount Royal, in western Montreal, succeeding
House Speaker Alan Macnaughton. He would hold this seat for almost 20 years. In
1967, he was appointed to Pearson's
cabinet as
Minister of Justice.
Justice minister and leadership candidate
Trudeau at the 1968 Liberal convention
As justice minister, Pierre Trudeau was responsible for removing laws against
homosexuality from the
Criminal Code of Canada, famously remarking: "The view we take here is that there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation." Trudeau also liberalized
divorce laws, and clashed with Quebec
Premier Daniel Johnson, Sr., during constitutional negotiations.
At the end of Canada's
centennial year in 1967, Prime Minister Pearson announced his intention to step down. Trudeau was persuaded to run for the Liberal leadership. His energetic campaign attracted the attention of the news media and mobilized and inspired many youths, who saw Trudeau as a symbol of generational change. Going into the leadership convention, Trudeau was the front-runner, and was clearly the favourite candidate with the Canadian public. Many within the Liberal Party still had deep doubts about him, though. Having joined the party only in 1965, he was still considered an outsider. Many saw him as too radical and outspoken a figure. Some of his views, particularly those on divorce, abortion, and homosexuality, were opposed by the substantial conservative wing of the party. Nevertheless, at the April
1968 Liberal leadership convention, Trudeau was elected leader of the party on the fourth ballot, with the support of 51% of the delegates, defeating some prominent, long-serving Liberals including
Paul Martin Sr.,
Robert Winters and
Paul Hellyer. Trudeau was sworn in as Liberal leader and Prime Minister two weeks later on
20 April.
Prime Minister
accessdate=2006-12-05}}
Trudeau soon called an election, for
25 June (see
Canadian federal election, 1968). His election campaign benefited from an unprecedented wave of personal popularity called "
Trudeaumania" (a term coined by journalist Lubor J. Zink
[5]), which saw Trudeau mobbed by throngs of youths. An iconic moment that influenced the election occurred on its eve, during the annual
Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade in
Montreal, when rioting
Québec separatists threw rocks and bottles at the grandstand where Trudeau was seated. Rejecting the pleas of his aides that he take cover, Trudeau stayed in his seat, facing the rioters, without any sign of fear. The image of the young politician showing such courage impressed the Canadian people, and he handily won the election the next day.
As Prime Minister, Trudeau espoused
participatory democracy as a means of making Canada a "Just Society." He defended vigorously the newly implemented universal health care and regional development programs as means of making society more just.
During the
October Crisis of 1970, the ''
Front de libération du Québec'' (FLQ) kidnapped British Trade Consul
James Cross at his residence on the fifth of October. Five days later, Quebec Labour Minister
Pierre Laporte was also kidnapped (and was later murdered, on
17 October). Trudeau responded by invoking the ''
War Measures Act'', which gave the government sweeping powers of arrest and detention without trial. Although this response is still controversial and was opposed as excessive by figures like
Tommy Douglas, it was met with only limited objections from the public. Trudeau presented a determined public stance during the crisis, answering the question of how far he would go to stop the terrorists with "
Just watch me." Five of the FLQ terrorists were flown to Cuba in 1970 as part of a deal in exchange for James Cross' life, but all members were eventually arrested. The five flown to Cuba were jailed after they returned to Canada years later.
Trudeau's first years would be most remembered for the passage of his implementation of official
bilingualism. Long a goal of Trudeau, this legislation requires all Federal services to be offered in French and English. The measures were very controversial at the time in English Canada, but would be successfully passed and implemented.
Pierre Trudeau speaks with Queen Elizabeth II.
Trudeau was the first world leader to agree to meet
John Lennon and his wife
Yoko Ono on their 'tour for
world peace'. Lennon said, after talking with Trudeau for 50 minutes, that Trudeau was "a beautiful person" and that "if all politicians were like Pierre Trudeau, there would be world peace."
On
4 March,
1971, the Prime Minister married
Margaret Sinclair, a woman who, at 22, was 30 years his junior. They later divorced.
In foreign affairs, Trudeau kept Canada firmly in the
NATO Alliance, but often pursued an independent path in international relations. He made Canada the first western power to establish diplomatic relations with the
People's Republic of China (to
Richard Nixon's fury), and went on a state visit to Beijing. He was known to be a friend of
Fidel Castro and Cuba.
Trudeau and Cuban President Fidel Castro.
In the
election of 1972, Trudeau's Liberal Party won with a
minority government, with the
New Democratic Party holding the
balance of power. This government would move to the left, including the creation of
Petro-Canada.
In May 1974, the House of Commons passed a
motion of no confidence in the Trudeau government. The
election of 1974 saw Trudeau and the Liberals re-elected with a
majority government with 141 of the 264 seats. In September 1975,
Finance Minister,
John Turner resigned. Trudeau later (in October 1975) instituted
Wage and Price Controls, something which he had mocked
Robert Stanfield for proposing during the election campaign a year earlier.
Trudeau's outward actions during his premiership led many to believe he harboured
republican notions; it was even rumoured by
Paul Martin, Sr., that the
Queen was worried
the Crown "had little meaning for him." This may have had to do with the erasure of royal symbols, his documented antics around the Monarch, such as his sliding down
Buckingham Palace banisters, and his famous pirouette behind the Queen, captured on film in 1977. He also glaringly breached protocol in 1978 when he was vacationing in
Morocco, instead of in Canada to attend the Queen's arrival and departure. However, he was accused of instant monarchism, as well as opportunism during a period of personal unpopularity in the 1970s, when he invited Elizabeth II to attend the first
Commonwealth Conference held on Canadian soil. The invitation, and acceptance of it, started the tradition of Elizabeth attending Commonwealth conferences, no matter the location. Also, in 1976, after
Robert Bourassa, then
Premier of Quebec, begged Trudeau to invite the Queen to the
Olympics in Montreal, Trudeau, after obliging him, became annoyed when Bourassa later became unsettled about how unpopular the move might be. He commented directly on the Monarchy in 1967, when he, by then a Cabinet minister, stated "I wouldn't lift a finger to get rid of the monarchy... I think the monarchy, by and large, has done more good than harm to Canada." Ultimately, he experimented with the Crown more than any previous politician, and then entrenched the role of the Crown in Canada when he orchestrated the patriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1982 (see below).
[6]
A worsening economy, burgeoning national debt, and growing public antipathy towards Trudeau's perceived arrogance caused his poll numbers to fall rapidly. Trudeau delayed the election as long as he could, but was forced to call one in 1979.
Defeat and opposition
In the
election of 1979, Trudeau's government was defeated by the
Progressive Conservatives, led by
Joe Clark, who formed a
minority government. Trudeau announced his intention to resign as Liberal Party leader; however, before a
leadership convention could be held, Clark's government was defeated in the
Canadian House of Commons by a
Motion of Non-Confidence. The Liberal Party persuaded Trudeau to stay on as leader and fight the election. Trudeau defeated Clark in the
February 1980 election, and won a
majority government.
Return to power
Signing of the Constitution Act by Queen Elizabeth II, in 1982
The Liberal victory in 1980 highlighted a sharp geographical divide in the country: the party had won no seats west of
Manitoba. Trudeau had to resort to having
Senators appointed to Cabinet to ensure representation from all regions. The introduction of the
National Energy Program (NEP) created a firestorm of protest in the Western provinces and increased what many termed "Western alienation." A series of difficult budgets by long-time loyalist
Allan MacEachen in the early 1980s did not improve Trudeau's economic reputation.
Two very significant events for Canada occurred during Pierre Trudeau's final term in office. The first was the defeat of the
referendum on Québec sovereignty, called by the ''
Parti Québécois'' government of
René Lévesque. In the debates between Trudeau and Levesque, Canadians were treated to a contest between two highly intelligent, articulate and bilingual politicians who, despite being bitterly opposed, were each committed to the democratic process.
[7] Trudeau promised a new constitutional agreement with Québec should it decide to stay in Canada, and the "No" side (that is, No to sovereignty) ended up receiving around 60% of the vote.
Trudeau had attempted
patriation of the Constitution earlier in his career, but always ran into a combined force of provincial Premiers on the issue of an amending formula. After he threatened to go to London alone, a
Supreme Court decision led Trudeau to meet with the Premiers one more time. Trudeau reached an agreement with nine of the Premiers, with the notable exception of LĂ©vesque. Quebec's refusal to agree to the new constitution became a source of continued acrimony between the federal and Quebec governments. Even so, the patriation was achieved; the ''
Constitution Act, 1982'' was proclaimed by Queen Elizabeth on
17 April,
1982. Following this, Trudeau commented in his memoirs "I always said it was thanks to three women that we were eventually able to reform our Constitution. Â The Queen, who was favorable,
Margaret Thatcher, who undertook to do everything that our Parliament asked of her, and
Jean Wadds, who represented the interests of Canada so well in London... The Queen favoured my attempt to reform the Constitution. I was always impressed not only by the grace she displayed in public at all times, but by the wisdom she showed in private conversation."
6
Trudeau's approval ratings slipped after the bounce from the 1982 patriation, and by the beginning of
1984, opinion polls showed the Liberals were headed for certain defeat if Trudeau remained in office. On
29 February, after a "long walk in the snow", Trudeau decided to step down, ending his 15-year tenure as Prime Minister. He formally retired on
30 June.
Final years
Trudeau in 1994.
Shortly after his retirement from politics, Trudeau joined the Montreal law firm
Heenan Blaikie as counsel. Though he rarely gave speeches or spoke to the press, his interventions into public debate had a significant impact when they occurred. Trudeau wrote and spoke out against both the
Meech Lake Accord and
Charlottetown Accord proposals to amend the Canadian constitution, arguing that they would weaken federalism and the Charter of Rights if implemented. His opposition was a critical factor leading to the defeat of the two proposals. He also spoke out against
Jacques Parizeau and the ''Parti Québécois'' with less effect. In his final years, Trudeau commanded broad respect in Canada, but was regarded with suspicion in Québec due to his role in the 1982 constitutional deal which was seen as having excluded that province, while dislike for him remained commonplace in Western Canada. Trudeau also remained active in international affairs, visiting foreign leaders and participating in international associations such as the
Club of Rome.
In the last years of his life, Trudeau was afflicted with
Parkinson's disease and
prostate cancer, and became less active, although he continued to work at his law office until a few months before his death at the age of 80. He was devastated by the death of his youngest son,
Michel Trudeau, who was killed in an avalanche in
November 1998.
Death
Pierre Trudeau was honoured with a state funeral.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau died on
28 September,
2000, and was buried in the Trudeau family crypt, St-Remi-de-Napierville Cemetery, Saint-Remi, Québec.
[8] He
lay in state to allow Canadians to pay their last respects. The response by Canadians was unprecedented in its size and public outpouring of emotion. He is survived by his ex-wife Margaret, his sons
Justin Trudeau and
Alexandre "Sacha" Trudeau, and his daughter, Sarah, whom he fathered with
Deborah Coyne. During the
state funeral, Justin delivered an emotional yet articulate eulogy
[9] that led to wide-spread speculation in the media that a career in politics was in his future.
Marriage and Children
On 4 March 1971, the Prime Minister married
Margaret Sinclair, a woman who, at 22, was 30 years his junior. The couple had three children:
Justin (b. December 25, 1971),
Alexandre (Sacha) (b. December 25, 1973), and
Michel (October 2, 1975 - November 13, 1998). They were the subject of enormous press coverage before their well-publicised legal separation in 1977. Their divorce was finalised in 1984. In 1991, Trudeau became a father again, with
Deborah Coyne. This was his first and only daughter, named Sarah. Trudeau did not marry Coyne.
Spirituality
Trudeau was a
Roman Catholic, and attended church throughout his life. While mostly private about his beliefs, he made it clear that he was a believer, stating, in an interview with the ''United Church Observer'' in 1971: âI believe in life after death, I believe in God and Iâm a
Christian.â Trudeau maintained, however, that he preferred to impose constraints on himself rather than have them imposed from the outside. In this sense, he believed he was more like a
Protestant than a Catholic of the era in which he was schooled.
[10]
Michael W. Higgins, former President of
St. Jerome's University, has researched Trudeauâs spirituality and finds that it incorporated elements of three Catholic traditions. The first of these was the
Jesuits who provided his education up to the college level. Trudeau frequently displayed the logic and love of argument consistent with that tradition. A second great spiritual influence in Trudeauâs life was
Dominican. According to Michel Gourges, Rector of the ''CollĂ©ge Dominicain philosophie et thĂ©ologie,'' Trudeau âconsidered himself a lay Dominican.â He studied philosophy under Dominican Father Louis-Marie Regis and remained close to him throughout his life, regarding Regis as âspiritual director and friend.â Another skein in Trudeauâs spirituality was a
contemplative aspect acquired from his association with the
Benedictine tradition. According to Higgins, Trudeau was convinced of the centrality of
meditation in a life fully-lived. He took retreats at
Saint-BenoĂźt-du-Lac, Quebec and regularly attended
Hours and the
Eucharist at Montrealâs Benedictine community.
[11]
Although never publicly
theological in the way of
Margaret Thatcher or
Tony Blair, nor
evangelical, in the way of
Jimmy Carter or
George W. Bush, Trudeauâs spirituality, according to Higgins, "suffused, anchored, and directed his inner life. In no small part, it defined him.â
11
Legacy
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's official portrait by Myfanwy Pavelic.
Trudeau's most enduring legacy may lie in his contribution to Canadian nationalism, and of pride in Canada in and for itself rather than as a derivative of the British Commonwealth. His role in this effort, and his related battles with Quebec on behalf of Canadian unity, cemented his political position when in office despite the controversies he faced â and remain the most remembered aspect of his tenure afterward.
Some consider Trudeau's economic policies to have been a weak point. Inflation and unemployment marred much of his prime ministership. When Trudeau took office in 1968 Canada had a debt of $18 billion (24% of GDP) which was largely left over from World War II; when he left office in 1984, that debt stood at $200 billion (44% of GDP), an increase of 83% in real terms.
[12] However, these trends were present in most western countries at the time, including the United States.
Though his popularity had fallen in English Canada at the time of his retirement in 1984, public opinion later became more sympathetic to him, particularly in comparison to his successor,
Brian Mulroney.
Constitutional legacy
One of Trudeau's most enduring legacies is the 1982 patriation of the
Canadian constitution, including a domestic amending formula and the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is seen as advancing
civil rights and liberties and,
notwithstanding clause aside, has become a cornerstone of Canadian values for most Canadians. It also represented the final step in Trudeau's liberal vision of a fully independent and nationalist Canada based on fundamental human rights and the protection of individual freedoms as well as those of linguistic and cultural minorities. Court challenges based on the Charter of Rights have been used to advance the cause of women's equality, establish French school boards in provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan, and to mandate the adoption of
gay marriage all across Canada.
Section 35 of the ''
Constitution Act of 1982'' has clarified issues of aboriginal and equality rights, including establishing the previously denied aboriginal rights of
MĂ©tis. Section 15, dealing with Equality Rights, has been used to remedy societal discrimination against minority groups. The coupling of the direct and indirect influences of the Charter has meant that it has grown to influence every aspect of Canadian life, and the override (
notwithstanding clause) of the Charter has been infrequently used.
The Constitution has been criticised by the
Canadian conservatives for its lack of a system of checks and balances at a time when the courts have been gaining power at the expense of representative government. They claim that it has resulted in too much
judicial activism on the part of the courts in Canada. It is also heavily criticised by
Quebec Nationalists, who resent that the Constitution was never ratified by any
Quebec Government, and does not recognise a constitutional veto for the province of
Quebec.
Bilingualism
Bilingualism is one of Trudeau's most lasting accomplishments, having been fully integrated into the Federal government's services, documents, and broadcasting (not, however, in provincial governments, except for Ontario and New Brunswick). While official
bilingualism has settled some of the grievances Francophones had towards the federal government, many Francophones had hoped that Canadians would be able to function in the official language of their choice no matter where in the country they were.
However, Trudeau's ambitions in this arena have been overstated: Trudeau once said that he regretted the use of the term "bilingualism", because it appeared to demand that all Canadians speak two languages. In fact, Trudeau's vision was to see Canada as a bilingual confederation in which ''all'' cultures would have a place. In this way, his conception broadened beyond simply the relationship of Quebec to Canada.
Cultural legacy
Few outside the museum community recall the tremendous efforts Trudeau made, in the last years of his tenure, to see to it that the
National Gallery of Canada and the
Canadian Museum of Civilization finally had proper homes in the National capital. The Trudeau government also implemented programs which mandated Canadian content in film, and broadcasting, and gave substantial subsidies to develop the Canadian media and cultural industries. Though the policies remain controversial, Canadian media industries have become stronger since Trudeau's arrival.
On the other side of the ledger, Trudeau was criticised as denigrating or even erasing large segments of Canada's historic culture to fit his programs, and using the government's media subsidies to that end.
Legacy with respect to the west
In the provinces west of Ontario the memory of Trudeau is notably less favourable than it is in the rest of English-speaking Canada. He is often regarded as the father of "Western alienation." The reasons for this are various. Some of them are ideological. Many Canadians disapproved of official bilingualism and many other of Trudeau's policies, which they saw as moving the country away from its historic traditions and attachments, and markedly toward the political left. Such feelings were perhaps strongest in the West. Other reasons for western alienation are more plainly regional in nature. To many westerners, Trudeau's policies seemed to favour other parts of the country, especially
Ontario and
Quebec, at their expense. Outstanding among such policies was the
National Energy Program, which was seen as unfairly depriving western provinces of the full economic benefit from their oil and gas resources, in order to pay for nation-wide social programs, and make regional transfer payments to poorer parts of the country. Sentiments of this kind were especially strong in oil-rich
Alberta.
More particularly, two incidents involving Trudeau are remembered having fostering Western alienation, and as emblematic of it. During a visit to
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on
17 July,
1969, Trudeau met with a group of protesting farmers, angry that the federal government was not doing more to market their wheat, to one of whom he responded, "Why should ''I'' sell your wheat? It's ''your'' wheat." Years later, on a train trip through
Salmon Arm, British Columbia, he "gave the
finger" to a group of protesters, through the carriage window. Generally forgotten is that Trudeau's question in Saskatoon was rhetorical and followed by long explanation that, in epitome, said that the governments' role was only to help farmers to sell their own wheat, and told of some of the difficulties involved in doing so on the international market; likewise, that the protesters in Salmon Arm were shouting blatantly anti-French and anti-Quebec slogans. In his book ''Paradox: Trudeau as Prime Minister'',
Anthony Westell covers this incident, giving a good sense of what was actually said, rather than the excerpt that made the headlines.
Legacy with respect to Quebec
Trudeau's legacy in Quebec is mixed. Many credit his actions during the
October Crisis as crucial in terminating the
Front de libĂ©ration du QuĂ©bec (FLQ) as a force in Quebec, and ensuring that the campaign for Quebec separatism took a democratic and peaceful route. However, his imposition of the ''War Measures Act'' â which received majority support at the time â is remembered by some in Quebec and elsewhere as an attack on democracy. Trudeau is also credited by many for the defeat of the
1980 Quebec referendum.
At the federal level, Trudeau faced almost no strong political opposition in Quebec during his time as Prime Minister. For instance, his Liberal party captured 74 out of 75 Quebec seats in the
1980 federal election). Provincially, though, Québécois elected twice the pro-sovereignty ''
Parti Québécois''. Moreover, there were not, then, any pro-sovereignty federal parties such as the
Bloc Québécois. Since the signing of the
Constitutional Act of Canada in 1982, the Liberal Party of Canada has never succeeded in winning a majority of seats in Quebec. Trudeau is seen by many Québécois, particularly in the news media, the academic and political establishments, as a ''vendu'' (sellout).
[13] While his reputation has grown in English Canada since his retirement in 1984, it has not improved in Quebec.
Overview
Trudeau remains well-regarded by many Canadians.
[14] However, the passage of time has only slightly softened the strong antipathy he inspired among his opponents.
[15] Trudeau's charisma and confidence as Prime Minister, and his championing of the Canadian identity are often cited as reasons for his popularity. His strong personality, contempt for his opponents and distaste for compromise on many issues have made him, as historian
Michael Bliss puts it, "one of the most admired and most disliked of all Canadian prime ministers."
[16] Trudeau's electoral successes were matched in the 20th century only by those of
Mackenzie King. In all, Trudeau is undoubtedly one of the most dominant and transformative figures in Canadian political history.
[17][18]
Supreme Court appointments
Trudeau chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the
Supreme Court of Canada by the
Governor General:
★
Bora Laskin (
March 19,
1970 â
March 17,
1984; as Chief Justice,
December 27,
1973)
★
Joseph Honoré Gérald Fauteux (as Chief Justice,
March 23,
1970 â
December 23,
1973; appointed a
Puisne Justice December 22,
1949)
★
Brian Dickson (
March 26,
1973 â
June 30,
1990; as Chief Justice,
April 18,
1984)
★
Jean Beetz (
January 1,
1974 â
November 10,
1988)
★
Louis-Philippe de Grandpre (
January 1,
1974 â
October 1,
1977)
★
Willard Zebedee Estey (
September 29,
1977 â
April 22,
1988)
★
Yves Pratte (
October 1,
1977 â
June 30,
1979)
★
William Rogers McIntyre (
January 1,
1979 â
February 15,
1989)
★
Antonio Lamer (
March 28,
1980 â
January 6,
2000)
★
Bertha Wilson (
March 4,
1982 â
January 4,
1991)
★
Gerald Le Dain (
May 29,
1984 â
November 30,
1988)
Honours
The following honours were bestowed upon him by the
Governor General, or by
Queen Elizabeth II herself:
★ Trudeau was made a member of the
Queen's Privy Council for Canada on
April 4, 1967, giving him the style "
The Honourable" and post-nominal "PC" for life.
[19]
★ He was styled "
The Right Honourable" for life on his appointment as Prime Minister on
April 20, 1968.
★ Trudeau was made a
Companion of Honour in
1984.
★ He was made a
Companion of the Order of Canada (post-nominal "CC") on June 24,
1985.
[20]
★ He was granted arms, crest, and supporters by the
Canadian Heraldic Authority on
December 7,
1994.
[21]
:Other honours include:
★ The Canadian news agency
Canadian Press named Trudeau "
Newsmaker of the Year" a record ten times, including every year from 1968 to 1975, and two more times in 1978 and 2000. In 1999, CP also named Trudeau "Newsmaker of the 20th Century." Trudeau declined to give CP an interview on that occasion, but said in a letter that he was "surprised and pleased." In many informal and unscientific polls conducted by Canadian Internet sites, users also widely agreed with the honour.
★ He was awarded an honorary doctorate from
Duke University in
1974.
[22]
★ In 1983-84, he was awarded the
Albert Einstein Peace Prize, for negotiating the reduction of nuclear weapons and Cold War tension in several countries.
★ The
Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School in
Markham, Ontario is named in his honour.
[23]
★
CollĂšge Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau in
Winnipeg, Manitoba is also named in his honour.
★ The
Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) in
Montreal, Quebec was named in his honour, effective
January 1,
2004.
★ In 2004, viewers of the
CBC series ''
The Greatest Canadian'' voted Trudeau the third greatest Canadian.
★ The government of British Columbia named a peak in the
Cariboo Mountains Mount Pierre Elliott Trudeau, on
June 10,
2006.
[24] The peak is located in the
Premier Range, which has many peaks named for British Columbian Premiers and Canadian Prime Ministers.
Trudeau in film
Trudeau's life is depicted in two
CBC Television mini-series. The first one, ''
Trudeau''
[25] (with
Colm Feore in the title role), depicts his years as Prime Minister. ''Trudeau II: Maverick in the Making''
[26] (with Stéphane Demers as the young Pierre, and Tobie Pelletier as him in later years) portrays his earlier life.
The 1999 documentary film '' explores the impact of Trudeau's vision of Canadian bilingualism through interviews with eight young Canadians.
He was the co-subject along with
René Lévesque in the
Donald Brittain-directed documentary mini-series''
The Champions''.
See also
★
Politics of Canada
★
List of Canadian general elections
★
Timeline of Canadian history
★
History of the Quebec independence movement
★
Prime Minister nicknaming in Quebec
★
Death and state funeral of Pierre Trudeau
Footnotes
1.
2.
3. Pierre Elliott Trudeau, ''Memoirs'', McClelland & Stewart, 1993
4.
5. Lubor J. Zink, Trudeaucracy, Toronto: Toronto Sun Publishing Ltd., 1972, back cover: "Lubor Zink is the one who first coined those two terms of our times -- Trudeaumania and Trudeaucracy."
6. Heinricks, Geoff; ''Canadian Monarchist News'': Trudeau and the Monarchy; Winter/Spring, 2000-01; reprinted from the ''National Post''
7. Exchange of correspondence between Pierre E. Trudeau and René Lévesque on the patriation of the Canadian constitution, 1981-1982
8. Gravesite of the Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau
9. CBC News - Justin Trudeau's eulogy, Oct. 3, 2000
10. Trudeau, P. 1996. ''Against the Current: Selected Writings 1939-1996.'' G. Pelletier, ed. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart. 302-303.
11. Higgins, M. 2004. âDefined by Spirituality,â in English, J., R. Gwyn and P.W. Lackenbauer, eds. ''The Hidden Pierre Trudeau: The Faith Behind the Politics.'' Ottawa: Novalis. 26-30.
12. Centre for the Study of Living Standard - GDP figures
13. Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Quebec and the Constitution
14. "Trudeau tops 'greatest Canadian' poll." Toronto Star, 2002-02-16. Retrieved: 2007-04-07.
15. "The Worst Canadian?", ''The Beaver'' '87' (4), Aug/Sep 2007. The article reports the results of a promotional, online survey by write-in vote for "the worst Canadian", which the magazine carried out in the preceding months, and in which Trudeau polled highest.
16. Bliss, M. "The Prime Ministers of Canada: Pierre Elliot Trudeau" Seventh Floor Media. Retrieved: 2007-04-07.
17. Whitaker, R. "Trudeau, Pierre Elliot" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia Historica.'' Retrieved: 2007-04-07.
18. Behiels, M. "Competing Constitutional Paradigms:Trudeau versus the Premiers, 1968-1982" Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy. Regina, Saskatchewan. Retrieved: 2007-04-07.
19. Canada Privy Council Office - Members of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, Version: February 6, 2006
20. Governor General of Canada - Pierre Elliott Trudeau - Companion of the Order of Canada, October 30, 1985
21. Royal Heraldry Society of Canada - Arms of Canada's Prime Ministers
22. Duke University - Center for Canadian Studies
23. Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School
24. CBC Article - Mt. Trudeau named; CBC Article - Mount Trudeau to be officially named in June
25. "''Trudeau''" (2002) mini-series IMDB Page
26. ''"Trudeau II: Maverick in the Making"'' (2005) mini-series IMDB Page
Bibliography
:'Books about Trudeau'
★ Bergeron, GĂ©rard. ''Notre miroir Ă deux faces: Trudeau-LĂ©vesque''. Montreal: QuĂ©bec/AmĂ©rique, c1985. ISBN 2-89-037239-1
★ Burelle, AndrĂ©. '' Pierre Elliott Trudeau : l'intellectuel et le politique'', MontrĂ©al: Fides, 2005, 480 pages. ISBN 276212669X
★ Butler, Rick, Jean-Guy Carrier, eds. ''The Trudeau decade''. Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1979.
★ Butson, Thomas G. ''Pierre Elliott Trudeau''. New York: Chelsea House, c1986. ISBN 0-87-754445-X
★ Clarkson, Stephen; McCall, Christina. ''Trudeau and our times''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, c1990 - c1994. 2 v. ISBN 0-77-105414-9 ISBN 0-77-105417-3
★ Cohen, Andrew, J. L. Granatstein, eds. ''Trudeau's shadow: the life and legacy of Pierre Elliott Trudeau''. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 1999.
★ Couture, Claude. ''Paddling with the current: Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Ătienne Parent, liberalism and nationalism in Canada''. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, c1998. Issued also in French: La loyautĂ© d'un laĂŻc. ISBN 1417593067 ISBN 0888643136
★ English, John. "Citizen of the world: the life of Pierre Elliot Trudeau. Volume One 1919-1968" Knopf Canada, 2006 ISBN 0676975216 ISBN 978-0676975215
★ Griffiths, Linda. ''Maggie & Pierre: a fantasy of love, politics and the media: a play''. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1980. ISBN 0889221820
★ Gwyn, Richard. ''The northern magus : Pierre Trudeau and Canadians''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, c1980. ISBN 0771037325
★ Laforest, Guy. ''Trudeau and the end of a Canadian dream''. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, c1995. ISBN 0773513000 ISBN 0773513221
★ McDonald, Kenneth. ''His pride, our fall: recovering from the Trudeau revolution''. Toronto: Key Porter Books, c1995. ISBN 155013714X
★ McIlroy, Thad, ed. '' A Rose is a rose : a tribute to Pierre Elliott Trudeau in cartoons and quotas''. Toronto: Doubleday, 1984. ISBN 038519787X ISBN 0385197888
★ Nemni, Max and Nemni, Monique. ''. Toronto:
Douglas Gibson Books, 2006. ISBN 0771067496
★ Peterson, Roy. ''Drawn & quartered: the Trudeau years''. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1984.
★ Radwanski, George. ''Trudeau''. New York : Taplinger Pub. Co., 1978. ISBN 0800878973
★ Simpson, Jeffrey. ''Discipline of power: the Conservative interlude and the Liberal restoration''. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1984. ISBN 0920510248
★ Stewart, Walter. ''Shrug, Trudeau in power''. Toronto: New Press, 1971. ISBN 0887700810
★ Southam, Nancy. ''Pierre'', McClelland & Stewart, September 19, 2006, 408 pages ISBN 978-0-7710-8168-2
★ Simard, François-Xavier. ''Le vrai visage de Pierre Elliott Trudeau'', MontrĂ©al: Les Intouchables, April 19, 2006 ISBN 2-89549-217-4
★ Vastel, Michel. '' The outsider : the life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau''. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, c1990. 266 p. Translation of: Trudeau, le QuĂ©bĂ©cois. ISBN 0771591004
★ Zink, Lubor J. ''Trudeaucracy.'' Toronto: Toronto Sun Publishing Ltd., 1972. 150 pages. ISBN 1301459780
:'Works by Trudeau'
★ ''Memoirs''. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, c1993. ISBN 0-7710-8588-5
★ ''Towards a just society: the Trudeau years'', with
Thomas S. Axworthy, (eds.) Markham, Ont.: Viking, 1990.
★ ''The Canadian Way: Shaping Canada's Foreign Policy 1968-1984'', with Ivan Head
★ ''Two innocents in Red China'', with Jacques HĂ©bert 1960.
★ '' Against the Current: Selected Writings''. Gerard Pelletier (ed)
★ ''The Essential Trudeau''. Ron Graham, (ed.) Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, c1998. ISBN 0-7710-8591-5
★ ''The asbestos strike. (''GrĂšve de l'amiante)'', translated by James Boake 1974
★ ''Pierre Trudeau Speaks Out on Meech Lake''. Donald J. Johnston, (ed). Toronto: General Paperbacks, 1990. ISBN 0-7736-7244-3
★ ''Approaches to politics''. Introd. by Ramsay Cook. Prefatory note by Jacques HĂ©bert. Translated by I. M. Owen. from the French ''Cheminements de la politique''. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1970. ISBN 0-19-540176-X
★ ''Underwater Man'', with Joe Macinnis and Joseph B. Macinnis.
★ ''Federalism and the French Canadians''. Introd. by John T. Saywell. 1968
★ ''Conversation with Canadians''. Foreword by Ivan L. Head. Toronto, Buffalo: University of Toronto Press 1972. ISBN 0-8020-1888-2
★ ''The best of Trudeau''. Toronto: Modern Canadian Library. 1972 ISBN 0-919364-08-X
★ ''Lifting the shadow of war''. C. David Crenna, editor. Edmonton: Hurtig, c1987. ISBN 0-88830-300-9
★ ''Human rights, federalism and minorities. (Les droits de l'homme, le fĂ©dĂ©ralisme et les minoritĂ©s)'', with Allan Gotlieb and the Canadian Institute of International Affairs
★ ''Ă contre-courant: textes choisis, 1939-1996'', with GĂ©rard Pelletier.
:'Archival Videos of Trudeau'
★
★
External links
★
canadahistory.com biography
★
Political Biography from the Library of Parliament
★
CBC Digital Archives - Pierre Elliott Trudeau: Swinger, Philosopher, Prime Minister
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