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Pierre Trudeau

Personal Profile

Pierre Trudeau
  • Birth Name:
    Joseph Phillipe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau
  • Nickname:
    Pierre Canada
  • Date of Birth:
    October 18, 1919
  • Zodiac Sign:
    Libra
  • Place of Birth:
    Montréal, Québec, Canada
  • Place of Death:
    Montréal, Québec, Canada
  • Date of Death:
    September 28, 2000
  • Cause of Death:
    Prostate Cancer
  • Sex:
    Male
  • Nationality:
    Canadian
  • Education:
    Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf

Family

Pierre Trudeau
  • Spouse:
    Margaret Trudeau - Divorced

Career

Pierre Trudeau

Trivia

Pierre Trudeau
  • Pierre Trudeau held his philosophy of one Canada and a strong federal government before he became prime minister and he maintained it throughout his political career.
  • His response to the FLQ Crisis, his rejection of the Quebec separatist movement, as well as his patriation of the Constitution and promotion of official bilingualism are all manifestations of this belief.
  • Trudeau worked in Ottawa as advisor to the Privy Council before returning to Montreal.
  • He began supporting labour unions, especially during in the Asbestos Strike, and criticized the repression of the Union Nationale under Premier Duplessis.
  • With other outspoken intellectuals, Trudeau started the journal Cité Libre as a forum for their ideas.
  • In 1961, he began teaching law at the University of Montreal.
  • In 1965, the Liberal party was looking for potential candidates in Quebec; Trudeau and two of his colleagues, Jean Marchand and Gérard Pelletier, were invited to run for the party in the federal election that year. They won their seats, and in April 1967, Trudeau became Minister of Justice.
  • Within a year, he had reformed the divorce laws and liberalized the laws on abortion and homosexuality.
  • When Lester Pearson resigned as prime minister in 1968, Trudeau was invited to run as a candidate.
  • He won the Liberal leadership convention and called an election immediately after.

Quotes

Pierre Trudeau
  • “Power only tires those who don't exercise it.”
  • “I bear solemn witness to the fact that NATO heads of state and of government meet only to go through the tedious motions of reading speeches, drafted by others, with the principal objective of not rocking the boat.”
  • “My life is one long curve, full of turning points.”
  • “If I found in my own ranks that a certain number of guys wanted to cut my throat, I'd make sure that I cut their throats first.”
  • “Society must take every means at its disposal to defend itself against the emergence of a parallel power which defies the elected power”
  • “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”
  • “It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from there.”
  • “The essential ingredient of politics is timing.”
  • “Reason over passion.”
  • “Canada is a country whose main exports are hockey players and cold fronts. Our main imports are baseball players and acid rain.”
View all Quotes: Pierre Trudeau

Biography

Pierre Trudeau
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Pierre Elliott Trudeau was born in Montreal in 1919; his father was Québécois, his mother of Scottish descent. He went to a local school, Académie Querbes, and then to the Jesuit college, Jean-de-Brébeuf. In spite of the Depression, Trudeau's father had become a wealthy man in the 1930s and the family toured Canada and Europe frequently. In 1940, Trudeau began studying law at the University of Montreal. As a student, he was required to join the Canadian Officers Training Corps during the war, but like many Quebeckers, Trudeau was opposed to conscription.

After graduating in 1943, he passed his bar exams, and then enrolled in a Master's program at Harvard. In 1946, he went to Paris to study at the École des sciences politiques, and then at the London School of Economics in Britain. By 1948, Trudeau was on a backpacking tour of Eastern Europe, and the Middle and Far East, areas of considerable turbulence in the post-war world. After many adventures, he arrived back in Canada the following year. After a total of sixteen years as prime minister, he resigned from politics in 1984. He returned to practicing law, travelled extensively and published his memoirs. His death on September 28, 2000, just short of his eighty-first birthday, prompted an outpouring of grief and tributes from across the country.

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