CANADA HISTORY - Prime Ministers

Pierre Trudeau

Pierre Elliott Trudeau, one of the most influential and charismatic figures in Canadian history, served as Prime Minister of Canada for a combined total of over 15 years, from 1968 to 1979 and again from 1980 to 1984. Trudeau's legacy as a leader who reshaped Canada's identity, particularly through his advocacy for a strong federal government, bilingualism, and multiculturalism, remains deeply embedded in the country's political and cultural landscape.

Early Life and Education

Pierre Trudeau was born on October 18, 1919, in Montreal, Quebec, to a bilingual and well-off family. His father, Charles-Émile Trudeau, was a successful businessman who owned a chain of gas stations, and his mother, Grace Elliott, was of Scottish descent. Trudeau’s early years were marked by privilege and opportunity, growing up in a comfortable home in Montreal’s Outremont neighborhood. He attended the elite Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf, where he was educated in a Jesuit environment that fostered intellectual curiosity and a sense of social justice.

After completing his early education, Trudeau attended the Université de Montréal, where he earned a law degree in 1943. He went on to study at prestigious institutions such as Harvard University, where he completed a master's degree in political economy, and later attended the London School of Economics and the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). His exposure to European intellectual and political currents during his time abroad would profoundly shape his thinking, particularly his commitment to individual freedoms, democratic governance, and a belief in a just society.

Early Political Involvement

Trudeau’s early career was marked by an intense interest in philosophy, law, and activism rather than direct political engagement. In the 1940s and 1950s, Trudeau became involved in several progressive movements in Quebec, advocating for labor rights and opposing the conservative government of Maurice Duplessis. During this period, known as the Grande Noirceur (the "Great Darkness"), Quebec was ruled by a highly authoritarian provincial government with close ties to the Catholic Church. Trudeau's opposition to the Duplessis regime was emblematic of his lifelong battle against authoritarianism and nationalism.

In the 1950s, Trudeau worked as a lawyer and academic, writing influential articles on federalism, civil liberties, and Quebec’s place within Canada. He was also one of the founding members of Cité Libre, a progressive political magazine that challenged the Catholic Church’s dominance in Quebec and advocated for a secular, modern, and democratic society. His critiques of Quebec nationalism and defense of a united Canada set him apart from many of his contemporaries in the province, marking the beginning of his political philosophy.

Entry into Federal Politics

Trudeau's intellectual and political activity in the 1950s and 1960s caught the attention of the Liberal Party of Canada, then led by Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. In 1965, at Pearson's invitation, Trudeau entered federal politics, running as a Liberal candidate in the riding of Mount Royal, a predominantly anglophone district in Montreal. He won the seat and was appointed as Minister of Justice in 1967, where he quickly gained national attention for his progressive reforms.

As Justice Minister, Trudeau introduced sweeping changes to Canada’s laws on issues such as divorce, abortion, and homosexuality. He famously declared, “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation,” in reference to his efforts to decriminalize homosexuality in 1969. This statement reflected his deeply held belief in individual freedoms and civil liberties, a hallmark of his political philosophy. Trudeau’s liberal social reforms earned him widespread support among progressive Canadians, while his intellectual style and charisma made him a rising star within the Liberal Party. Becoming Prime Minister

When Lester B. Pearson announced his retirement in 1968, Trudeau entered the leadership race for the Liberal Party. His candidacy electrified the nation, with many Canadians—particularly younger voters—rallying around his vision of a modern, dynamic Canada. Trudeau’s youthful energy, intellectual sharpness, and flair for the dramatic earned him the moniker “Trudeaumania” during the campaign. He easily won the Liberal leadership convention and, shortly afterward, became Canada’s 15th Prime Minister on April 20, 1968.

Trudeau’s first electoral test came later that year when he led the Liberals to a majority government in the 1968 federal election. His campaign focused on national unity, bilingualism, and social reform, resonating with voters across the country. Trudeau’s leadership style was bold and unapologetic, and his intellectualism contrasted with the pragmatic, cautious approach of many of his predecessors. His commitment to a strong, centralized federal government and his vision of a bilingual Canada dominated his early years in office.

Political Ideals and Policies

Trudeau’s tenure as Prime Minister was marked by his efforts to redefine Canada’s national identity. One of his most significant achievements was the introduction of the Official Languages Act in 1969, which enshrined bilingualism in Canadian law, making English and French the two official languages of the country. This move was intended to address the rising tide of Quebec nationalism and ensure that French-speaking Canadians felt included within the broader Canadian fabric.

At the heart of Trudeau’s political vision was his commitment to a united and federal Canada. He viewed Quebec’s separatist movement as a threat to Canadian unity, and he fought tirelessly to keep the country together. His opposition to Quebec nationalism was put to the test during the October Crisis of 1970, when the militant Quebec separatist group, the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), kidnapped British diplomat James Cross and Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte. In response to the crisis, Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act, granting the government extraordinary powers to arrest and detain individuals without charge. Although controversial, Trudeau defended his actions with the famous declaration, “Just watch me,” signaling his willingness to take decisive action to preserve law and order.

Trudeau’s economic policies during the 1970s focused on maintaining a balance between the free market and government intervention. His government pursued policies of social welfare, expanded healthcare programs, and implemented measures aimed at equalizing wealth distribution. However, the global economic downturn in the late 1970s posed significant challenges for Trudeau’s government, leading to rising inflation and unemployment. His economic struggles and growing discontent with his centralized policies contributed to his defeat in the 1979 federal election to Progressive Conservative leader Joe Clark.

Return to Power and Constitutional Reforms Despite his 1979 loss, Trudeau made a swift political comeback. Joe Clark’s minority government fell within nine months, and Trudeau returned to the Prime Minister’s Office after the 1980 election. This period of his leadership was defined by his commitment to patriating the Canadian Constitution, a long-standing goal of his political career. Trudeau sought to bring the Constitution under full Canadian control and enshrine a charter of rights and freedoms that would protect individual liberties. In 1981-1982, Trudeau negotiated with provincial premiers to bring about constitutional reform, culminating in the Constitution Act, 1982, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This was a landmark moment in Canadian history, as it entrenched fundamental rights and freedoms into the Constitution, including freedom of speech, equality before the law, and protection against discrimination. The act was a significant achievement for Trudeau, symbolizing his vision of a just society where individual rights were paramount.

However, Trudeau’s constitutional victory was not without controversy. Quebec’s premier, René Lévesque, refused to sign the new constitution, leaving Quebec feeling alienated from the national project. This exclusion would haunt future governments, particularly in their dealings with Quebec’s nationalist aspirations.

Later Years and Legacy

In 1984, Trudeau announced his retirement from politics, leaving behind a mixed but powerful legacy. His tenure was marked by bold ideas and significant achievements, particularly in the areas of national unity, bilingualism, and human rights. His critics, however, pointed to his sometimes authoritarian style, especially during the October Crisis, and his failure to address economic challenges during the late 1970s.

After leaving office, Trudeau withdrew from public life, focusing on his family and writing. He remained an intellectual figure in Canadian politics, though he largely stayed out of the limelight. Trudeau’s personal life, especially his relationship with his wife, Margaret Trudeau, was often in the media spotlight. The couple had three sons—Justin, Alexandre (Sacha), and Michel—but their marriage ended in separation in 1977. In 1998, Trudeau suffered a personal tragedy when his youngest son, Michel, died in an avalanche. This loss deeply affected him in his final years.

Pierre Trudeau passed away on September 28, 2000, at the age of 80. His funeral was attended by many dignitaries and citizens, and he was remembered as a transformational figure in Canadian politics. His legacy continues to resonate in Canadian society, particularly through the policies he implemented and the values he championed. His son, Justin Trudeau, would later follow in his father’s footsteps, becoming Prime Minister of Canada in 2015, continuing the Trudeau family’s influence on Canadian political life.

Pierre Trudeau's contributions to Canada as a modern, forward-thinking nation cannot be overstated. His vision of a united, bilingual, and multicultural Canada, along with his focus on individual rights and freedoms, helped shape the country's identity for future generations. Trudeau’s complex legacy—both celebrated and criticized—continues to evoke strong feelings, making him one of the most iconic leaders in Canadian history.

One of Our Best and Brightest

Martin O'Malley

CBC NEWS ONLINE

In December 1999, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was named top Canadian newsmaker of the 20th century. He finished ahead of prime ministers Mackenzie King, Lester Pearson, Wilfrid Laurier and Brian Mulroney, all of whom made the top ten. Think what you will of the century-ending poll, but no one will ever will remember the man as Pierre Who.

At the turn of the century, he had been out of office 15 years. He had recently lost his son, Michel, who was killed in November 1998 at the age of 23 when an avalanche carried him into a glacial lake in British Columbia. At the memorial service weeks later, Trudeau looked gaunt, almost skeletal, in his grief. The following year, on October 18, Pierre Elliott Trudeau turned 80.

In his prime, Trudeau was exciting, charismatic, sexy. He drove sports cars, wore capes, ascots and floppy hats, and always the signature red rose in his lapel. He slid down bannisters, canoed in white-water rapids, did pirouettes behind the Queen's back at Buckingham Palace. He made politics fashionable for the upbeat Sixties generation that emerged from the sleepy 1950s. He dated some of the most interesting women in the world — singer Barbra Streisand, movie star Margot Kidder, classical guitarist Liona Boyd. At the age of 52, he married Margaret Sinclair, the beautiful 22-year-old he had met while vacationing in Tahiti.

He seemed to come from out of nowhere in the 1960s, saying things like, "The state has no business in the nation's bedrooms." He borrowed the phrase from a Globe and Mail editorial in December 1967 when he was Minister of Justice explaining legislation he had introduced in the House of Commons that would reform divorce laws and liberalize laws on abortion and homosexuality.

The Three Wise Men from Quebec

It might have appeared he came out of nowhere, but in Quebec, where he was born on October 18, 1919, Trudeau had been a formidable presence. His father was a wealthy Quebecois, his mother was of Scottish descent. Trudeau's given names thus captured the bilingual, bicultural personality of Canada, the federalism the man dedicated his political life to preserving and enhancing. The Trudeau family often went on extensive European tours, allowing young Pierre to develop what would become an unquenchable taste for faraway places and adventure.

He studied at Jean de Brebeuf College, a Jesuit institution where doubtless he acquired his lifelong belief in reason (as in "reason over passion," which became his motto). He earned a law degree at the University of Montreal, a master's degree in political economy at Harvard University, then studied at Ecole des sciences politiques in Paris in 1946-47, followed by an academic year at the London School of Economics in 1947-48.

After a year backpacking throughout Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Far East, Trudeau returned to Canada where he worked in Ottawa as an advisor to the Privy Council. Soon he returned to Montreal where he worked with labour unions, championing the rights of workers during the violent Asbestos Strike in Quebec and attacking the repressive regime of the Union Nationale under Premier Maurice Duplessis. What he is best remembered for from this period is his work with Cite Libre, a journal of ideas he founded with other Quebec intellectuals when he taught law at the University of Montreal.

In 1965, the federal Liberal party was looking for candidates from Quebec. Trudeau and two friends, Jean Marchand and Gerard Pelletier, were invited to run in the federal election that year. Trudeau was the least known of the group that quickly became known as "the three wise men." This soon would change.

Trudeaumania sweeps Canada

Marchand, Pelletier and Trudeau all won their seats in the 1965 federal election. Trudeau, as Justice Minister, worked closely with Prime Minister Lester Pearson, who appeared to take a fatherly interest in the bright young man from Quebec.

When Pearson resigned as prime minister in 1968, Trudeau signed on as a candidate for the leadership of the Liberal party. At the beginning of the leadership contest, he was no shoo-in, but his personality and style suited the times that were a-changin' and by the spring of 1968 a wave of "Trudeaumania" swept Canada and Trudeau became a star. He hit all the demographic buttons — old and young, male and female, French and English, East and West. In their book Mondo Canuck, authors Geoff Pevere and Greig Dymond describe Trudeau as "the greatest pop star this country has ever produced."

Soon after winning the leadership of the Liberal Party in April 1968, Trudeau called an election, and trounced the opposition. It is no coincidence that Trudeau and media guru Marshall McLuhan became cohorts in the 1960s and maintained a creative relationship throughout the 1970s. Trudeau could have been the model for what McLuhan meant when he coined the phrase "the medium is the message." It wasn't what the man said, but how he said it — style over substance. That creased, angular, Gallic face worked marvelously on television, providing traction for the camera. Until the 1960s — John F. Kennedy first demonstrated it with his win over an earnest but sweaty Richard Nixon — politics was perceived as exclusionary, or as McLuhan might have said, "hot." Trudeau instantly made dull Canadian politics accessible and exciting. Trudeau was "cool."

But it was not that he lacked substance, far from it. During his 16 years as prime minister he championed seminal changes in the Canadian political landscape, among them:

Official Languages Act, 1969

Implementation of War Measure Act, 1970 ("Just watch me…")

Wage and Price controls, 1975

Appointed Jeanne Sauve first woman Speaker of House of Commons, 1980

Canadian Charter of Rights, 1982

Partition of Canadian Constitution, 1982

Appointed Jeanne Sauve first woman Governor-General, 1984

He didn't do things on the cheap. Over 16 years with Trudeau as prime minister, Canada's national debt skyrocketed by 1,200 per cent, from $17 billion to more than $200 billion.

Alone in his Montreal mansion

The Trudeaumania of the 1960s turned to Trudeauphobia in the late 1970s and early 1980s, mainly among members of the news media, with whom Trudeau never was totally comfortable, and often did not respect. Once in a clumsy scrum he took a swing at a reporter who had been jostled into him. Another time, when journalist Peter Desbarats sat down to interview him for Global Television, Desbarats cautiously raised the matter of a reconciliation between Trudeau and Margaret. Infuriated, Trudeau shot back at Desbarats, who was also EXPERIENCEing marital difficulties, and asked about his chances of a reconciliation.

Though his personal motto was "reason over passion," he suffered as much or more as any man in politics. There was the humiliation of Margaret running off to the bright lights with the Rolling Stones, the very public break-up, then, as he approached 80, he suffered two grievous blows. The first was the death of his lifelong friend Gerard Pelletier, which caused Trudeau to say of the loss: "A part of my soul has left me." A year later, in November 1998, his youngest son Michel died when an avalanche swept him to a frigid lake in British Columbia.

The loss of Michel drew Trudeau closer to his two other sons, Justin and Alexandre. Justin, a philosophy graduate, was teaching English literature in Vancouver. Alexandre (known as "Sacha") travelled the world making television documentaries. Trudeau also has a daughter, Sarah, whom he fathered with Deboroah Coyne, a constitutional law expert. At the end, Trudeau worked for a Montreal law firm and lived alone in his Montreal mansion. When he turned 80 on October 18, 1999, he was still cool. The Toronto Star noted in an editorial:

"…for those of us who were there when Pierre

Trudeau was prime minister it was the magic of the man that is etched and cherished in the mind's eye. We embraced his diamond-sharp intellect, his irreverence, and the style of his leadership and life.