The life ofPierre Trudeau

"I believe a constitution can permit the co-existence

of several cultures and ethnic groups with a single

state." --  Trudeau, September 30, 1965

Mishka Nizar and Zack Secord

Mr. Keery

Grade 10 History

Pierre Trudeau’s Early Years

• Born October 18, 1919 in Montreal, Joseph Philippe Pierre Ives Elliott Trudeau was the son of a Francophone father and Scottish mother

• As a boy, Trudeau was shy and skinny - some even called him "sickly" - but what he lacked in prowess, he more than made up for with intelligence

• Pierre earned a law degree at the University of Montreal, and a master's in political economy at Harvard

The Start of Trudeau’s Career• When Trudeau came back to Canada,

he was a different person

• He had had the honor of traveling abroad, and politics were his main focus and goal

• He took a job as a n advisor to the Privy Council in Ottawa and became a vocal supporter of workers involved in the Asbestos Strike in 1949 Quebec

• He was a very harsh critic of the ultra-conservative Union National regime headed by Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis, and when he helped to found the progressive intellectual journal Cité Libre, he could air his grievances and anti-nationalist sentiments to the public

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• In 1965, he found a better place for his political views

• He taught law at the University of Montréal and was invited with his former colleague from Cité Libretto and ran as a Liberal candidate in the federal election

• He was dubbed the three wise men (Trudeau, March, and and Pelletier ) and won places in government that term

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• They won their seats, and in April 1967, Trudeau became Minister of Justice

Alongside Lester B. Pearson

• Since Pierre Trudeau was very smart, he had an ambitious head on his shoulders

• He became Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson’s parliamentary secretary, then his justice minister

• Since he was entrusted with reforming the Criminal Code, there was controversy when he changed divorce laws and liberalized laws regarding abortion, and homosexuality

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• When explaining his decisions, Trudeau told reporters "The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation."

“Trudeaumania”

• Teenage girls swooned and screamed at Trudeau's public appearances

• A gang of middle-aged autograph seekers even chased him across the Parliament Hill grounds

• When Trudeau ran for the Liberal leadership in 1968, he became Canada's 15th prime minister

• Two months later, he won a majority government in a general election

Official Languages Act

• In 1969, Trudeau told Canadaians he believed in “two official languages and a pluralist society.”

• He created the Official Languages Act, which served two purposes of giving civil servants the choice to speak in English, or French

• This protected Francophones' rights to speak French anywhere in Canada

An October Crisis

• In 1970, things got tough for Trudeau

• The Front de Libération du Quebec (the FLQ), a group of terrorists fighting for separatism, kidnapped British diplomat James Cross and Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte

• Trudeau was angered by the FLQ and took drastic steps to stop them

• Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act in the early hours of October 16, 1970

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• The Act gave the government permission to temporarily suspend the Canadian Bill of Rights and make hundreds of arrests if necessary

• The FLQ responded to the government's actions by murdering Laporte

The Seventies

• Things were peaceful in 1971, and Trudeau found time to secretly wed Margaret Sinclair, the 22-year-old flower child daughter of a former Liberal cabinet minister

• Things got worse for Trudeau when he went through a very public separation from Margaret, following a wild night when she ran off with the Rolling Stones

The End of a Bad Patch

• After he was elected to a minority government once more in 1979, Trudeau announced his resignation from politics, a move that was out of character for a man who believed in ending things with a bang not a whimper

He Comes Back• Only a few months into his

retirement, Trudeau was called back to government after Prime Minister Joe Clark lost a vote of confidence

• Winning a majority government in 1980, Trudeau returned to his federalist cause

• In May 1980, René Lévesque would be holding a referendum on sovereignty-association, effectively asking Quebecers to separate from Canada

• In a series of characteristically passionate, cutting speeches, Trudeau swayed the public's vote to "No," and when the referendum took place, 60 per cent of Canadians were against separatism

The Constitution

• In 1980, Trudeau began working to achieve this most ambitious foal: to create a new, Canadaian-controled Constitution

• He wanted to include a Charter of Canadian Rights and Freedoms in the Constitution, one that would ensure individual rights were protected within a large, government-ruled country

• When Queen Elizabeth II came to Canada on April 17, 1982 to proclaim Canada's new Constitution, it was the crowning moment for Trudeau

Final Years as Prime Minister

• Despite his Constitution glory, Trudeau was, for the first time, no longer fashionable

• Unemployment was on the rise, inflation was still high, the deficit still huge and Trudeau introduced a National Energy Program that was widely loathed

• In his final years as prime minister, Trudeau devoted his energies to global matters, launching his own peace initiative in 1983

• Following what he described as a "long walk in the snow," Trudeau made a very important decision to resign from Politics in February of 1984

Out of the Public Eye, but not Forgotten

• Whenever Trudeau chose to speak publicly about an issue, Canadians still listened intently

• The Canadians had great respect for him and his mind of knowledge

• Whenever Trudeau chose to speak publicly about an issue, Canadians still listened intently

• He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in September 2000

• The unprecedented public outpouring of grief that followed proved that no matter whether they loved or hated him, Canadians never grew tired of watching Trudeau

Videos of Pierre Trudeau

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-73-2192-13243/politics_economy/trudeau/clip5

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-73-2192-13256/politics_economy/trudeau/clip16

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-73-2192-13259/politics_economy/trudeau/clip21

Bibliography

• http://www.collectionscanada.ca/primeministers/h4-3381-e.html

• http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/top_ten/nominee/trudeau-pierre.html

• http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0008141

• http://www.clevernet.net/pierre_trudeau/

• http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-74-2192/people/trudeau/