Pierre Trudeau

Prime minister of Canada (1968-1979, 1980-1984)

• Born: October 18, 1919
• Birthplace: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Died: September 28, 2000
• Place of death: Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Trudeau helped defeat the Quebec sovereignist movement, established diplomatic relations with China, and ended Canadian dependence on the United Kingdom by securing a new constitution and bill of rights.

Early Life

Pierre Trudeau (pyehr trew-doh) was born to a French-Canadian father and a mother of mixed Scottish and French descent. The family spoke French at home, but Trudeau’s father insisted the three children attend English schools and become fluent before switching them to French-language Jesuit schools. Trudeau’s father, a self-made millionaire, died in 1935, leaving his wife and children affluent for life.

When Trudeau graduated from the University of Montreal Law School in 1943, his opinions reflected his upbringing: He admired Francisco Franco’s Spain, indulged in casual anti-Semitism, and held strong Quebec nationalist views. Trudeau’s views changed, however, after attending Harvard University (1944-1946), earning a master’s degree, and beginning a doctoral dissertation in political science (never completed). He visited Paris (1946-1947) and also enrolled in the London School of Economics (1947-1948), where he joined Harold J. Laski’s seminar. He came home a democratic socialist, proud of Canadian federalism, and opposed to Quebec nationalism. Before returning to Canada he had circled the globe, traveling alone through the Balkans, the Near East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Thailand, and China.

Trudeau’s Montreal law practice specialized in labor and civil liberties. A lengthy introduction to a book about an asbestos workers’ strike, strongly condemning the church-state alliance that dominated Quebec, won wide attention. He helped found Cité Libre, a periodical demanding political and cultural reform in the province. Although critical of the Quebec church, Trudeau remained an observant Roman Catholic, and as late as 1950 he asked and received permission from Church authorities to read works on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of banned books) that dealt with Marxism.

Life’s Work

Trudeau’s political career began when he won a seat in the federal Parliament in November, 1965. He rose rapidly in Liberal Party ranks and became minister of justice in April of 1967. He proposed measures reforming divorce law and supported measures to liberalize statutes concerning homosexuality and abortion. When Lester B. Pearson retired as prime minister, Trudeau offered himself as a candidate. Elected leader of the Liberal Party, he became prime minister of Canada on April 20, 1968.

Trudeau immediately called an election, hoping to replace Pearson’s minority government with a clear majority of his own. The hectic campaign was marked by a so-called Trudeaumania, as large enthusiastic crowds applauded the charismatic candidate’s call for equal rights for French and English speakers and his rejection of special privileges for any province. On June 25, 1968, Liberals won 155 of 264 parliamentary seats, giving Trudeau a solid majority in his first term in office.

Trudeau quickly reformed the operation of the Cabinet and the prime minister’s office. Legislation establishing government-controlled health insurance had passed under Pearson, but he left it to Trudeau to make the program operational. Redeeming his campaign promise, Trudeau passed the Official Languages Act, mandating that government officials be able to provide bilingual service for citizens. Negative reactions irritated Trudeau when Western francophobes angrily claimed he intended to turn Canada into an entirely French-speaking country, while ultranationalist Quebecers denounced his law for preventing Quebec from becoming a unilingual French province.

Establishing an independent Canadian foreign policy, Trudeau reduced Canada’s military contribution to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and opened diplomatic relations with Communist China, years before U.S. president Richard M. Nixon made his dramatic trip to Beijing.

Quebec’s premier asked for federal help in October, 1970, when a Quebec extremist group that had been bombing mail boxes in Montreal kidnapped a British diplomat and a Quebec cabinet member. Trudeau declared that an insurrection existed, invoked the War Measures Act, and sent ten thousand soldiers in full battle regalia into Montreal, Quebec City, and Ottawa. Federal police arrested nearly five hundred people suspected of supporting revolution. Quebec indignation at this massive federal intrusion turned against the terrorists when they killed the cabinet minister. The British diplomat was eventually rescued, and the murderers were caught and convicted. After anger at the terrorists receded, questions arose over the damaging effect of Trudeau’s massive response on Canadian civil liberties.

On March 4, 1971, the fifty-one-year-old bachelor married twenty-two-year-old Margaret Sinclair. They had three sons. The marriage was tempestuous. In 1974, shortly after the two campaigned together in that year’s election, they separated. They were divorced in 1984, with Trudeau receiving custody of the children.

By 1972 there was growing opposition to Trudeau’s controversial stands. In the election that year the Liberals lost their parliamentary majority. Since they remained the largest party, Trudeau headed a minority government. Supported by the socialist New Democratic Party, he defeated numerous attempts by the opposition to use votes of no confidence to drive him out of office. In 1974, Trudeau chose a favorable moment, called a new election, and won a comfortable majority.

Canada faced major economic problems caused by inflation and unemployment. Early efforts failed to solve the difficulties. Trudeau resorted to wage and price controls in 1975, damaging his credibility because he had explicitly rejected Conservative proposals for such controls during the previous year’s campaign. When inflation and unemployment problems resurfaced as controls were removed, Trudeau’s reputation suffered further.

The rise to power in Quebec of the Parti Québécois and its leader René Lévesque , dedicated to achieving independence of Quebec from Canada, added the issue of the country’s future to the election of May, 1979. Trudeau tried to rally the country around Canadian unity, but economic concerns proved most important. Conservatives emerged as the largest party, forming a minority government led by Joe Clark .

After a brief stint as opposition leader, Trudeau resigned as leader of the Liberal Party in November. However, in December the opposition defeated Clark over a budget resolution. When Clark called an election for the following February, Trudeau reversed himself, agreed to again run as leader of the Liberals, and won a majority of the seats.

Trudeau intervened personally in the 1980 Quebec referendum called by the Parti Québécois on the issue of Quebec sovereignty, arguing strongly that remaining in Canada was the best choice for Quebec. Independence supporters blamed his intervention for turning the tide against the Parti Québécois.

Trudeau made the central theme of his last term in office the replacement of the 1867 British North America Act, which retained a supervisory role for Britain’s parliament, with a new written constitution. After a series of compromises were able to overcome opposition by English provinces (Quebec never signed on), the Constitution Act of April 17, 1982, severed formal political ties to Great Britain, entrenched minority language and education rights, and contained a charter of individual rights enforceable in Canadian courts.

On June 30, 1984, Trudeau retired from politics. In retirement he continued to defend the Canadian federal system, opposing the 1987 Meech Lake Accord and making an influential speech accusing the 1992 Charlottetown Accord of weakening the Canadian union.

Significance

Trudeau was the predominant Canadian political figure during the last third of the twentieth century and one of its greatest prime ministers. He was born in a Canada that was authoritarian, parochial, and dominated by British influences. His actions helped Canada evolve into a more equitable, tolerant, and pluralistic society.

Ignoring the discomfort of the United States over his actions, Trudeau claimed an independent diplomatic role for Canada, established relations with Communist China, and opened dialogue with the Soviet Union and neutral states. He remained in office longer than any other leader of the Western alliance, becoming the de facto elder statesman of the West.

Trudeau believed a strong federal government was best for his country and tried to make that policy attractive to all Canadians. His program of official bilingualism throughout the federal civil service, although only partially successful, made the country a friendlier place for French speakers. A deliberate policy of appointing French-Canadians to high federal office strengthened bonds between Quebec and the rest of Canada. When the rise of the Quebec sovereignty movement threatened the country’s unity, he used his personal prestige to defeat the sovereignist referendum.

Trudeau’s most important legacy is the constitution that he, more than anyone else, brought into being. Spelling out the rights of individuals and groups, and placing the interpretation of those rights in the hands of courts rather than politicians, the Canadian constitution guarantees that all can defend their civil liberties.

Bibliography

Bothwell, Robert. Canada and Quebec: One Country, Two Histories. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999. The history of the troubled relationship between the province of Quebec and the rest of Canada.

Clarkson, Stephen, and Christina McCall. Trudeau and Our Times. 2 vols. Toronto, Ont.: McClelland & Stewart, 1990, 1994. A comprehensive and detailed narrative of Trudeau’s entire career as a politician.

English, John. Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Volume I: 1919-1968. Toronto, Ont.: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2006. The first historian to have free access to Trudeau’s private letters and diaries, English provides a striking account of Trudeau’s personal life and intellectual development.

Finkel, Alvin. Our Lives: Canada After 1945. Toronto, Ont.: James Lorimer, 1997. A social history of Canada that assesses Trudeau’s impact on Canadian social and political life.

Laforest, Guy. Trudeau and the End of a Canadian Dream. Translated by Paul Leduc Browne and Michelle Weinroth. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995. A Québécois nationalist assails Trudeau for defeating efforts to achieve a special position for the province.

Mann, Susan. The Dream of Nation: A Social and Intellectual History of Quebec. 2d ed. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002. A sensitive social and intellectual history of the growth of nationalism in Quebec.