Pierre Elliott Trudeau Quotes

Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau (October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000) was a Canadian politician, statesman, and lawyer who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984. Between his non-consecutive terms as prime minister, he served as the leader of the Opposition from 1979 to 1980.
Trudeau was born and raised in Outremont, Quebec, and studied politics and law. In the 1950s, he rose to prominence as a labour activist in Quebec politics by opposing the conservative Union Nationale government. Trudeau was then an associate professor of law at the Université de Montréal. He was originally part of the social democratic New Democratic Party (NDP), but then joined the Liberal Party in 1965, believing that the NDP could not achieve power. That year, he was elected to the House of Commons, quickly being appointed as Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson's parliamentary secretary. In 1967, he was appointed as minister of justice and attorney general. As minister, Trudeau liberalized divorce and abortion laws and decriminalized homosexuality. Trudeau's outgoing personality and charisma caused a sensation, termed "Trudeaumania", which helped him win the leadership of the Liberal Party in 1968. He then succeeded Pearson and became prime minister of Canada.
From the late 1960s until the mid-1980s, Trudeau dominated the Canadian political scene. After his appointment as prime minister, he won the 1968, 1972, and 1974 elections, before narrowly losing in 1979. He won a fourth election victory shortly afterwards, in 1980, and eventually retired from politics shortly before the 1984 election. Trudeau is the most recent prime minister to win four elections (having won three majority governments and one minority government) and to serve two non-consecutive terms. His tenure of 15 years and 164 days makes him Canada's third-longest-serving prime minister, behind John A. Macdonald and William Lyon Mackenzie King.
In domestic policy, Trudeau's government responded to the 1970 Quebec terrorist crisis by controversially invoking the War Measures Act, facilitated Canada's conversion to the metric system, pioneered official bilingualism and multiculturalism, established Via Rail, and passed the Access to Information Act and the Canada Health Act. In addition, Trudeau successfully campaigned against Quebec's proposal to negotiate a sovereignty-association agreement with the federal government, which was decisively rejected in the 1980 Quebec referendum. In economic policy, Trudeau's government expanded social programs, introduced the capital gains tax, and oversaw major increases in deficit spending. In a bid to move the Liberal Party towards economic nationalism, Trudeau created Petro-Canada and launched the National Energy Program, both of which generated uproar in oil-rich Western Canada, leading to a rise in what many called "Western alienation". Trudeau's foreign policy included making Canada more independent. He presided over Canada's entry into the G7, and in 1982 he patriated the Canadian constitution and established the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, actions that achieved full Canadian sovereignty. He also distanced Canada from the United States, maintained cordial relations with the Soviet Union, and formed strong ties with China and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, putting him at odds with other capitalist Western nations.
Despite his personal motto, "Reason before passion", Trudeau aroused polarizing reactions throughout Canada during his time in office. While critics accused him of arrogance, economic mismanagement, and unduly centralizing Canadian decision-making to the detriment of the culture of Quebec and the economy of the Prairies, admirers praised what they considered to be the force of his intellect and his political acumen that maintained national unity over the Quebec sovereignty movement. In his retirement, Trudeau practised law at the Montreal law firm of Heenan Blaikie. He also spoke out against the Meech Lake and Charlottetown accords (which proposed granting Quebec certain concessions), arguing they would strengthen Quebec nationalism. Trudeau died in 2000. He is ranked highly among scholars in rankings of Canadian prime ministers, though he remains a divisive figure in Canadian politics and is viewed less favourably in Western Canada and Quebec. His eldest son, Justin Trudeau, served as the 23rd Prime Minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025, becoming the first prime minister of Canada to be a descendant of a former prime minister.