Canada's most interesting
prime minister; he served 20 April 1968 - 4 June 1979 and 3 March 1980 - 30 June 1984.
Ask a
Canadian what
he/she thinks of
Trudeau and you will get an earful: his long tenure in power earned many enemies. But even among his enemies is a grudging respect. Despite his arrogance, he was a brilliant and stylish man who battled ignorance with relish. After a long string of dull and plodding backroom-dealer bumpkins, Canada had a new kind of prime minister in PET. He was cool.
Trudeau was famous for many liberalizations of government. He was also famous for irreverence. He had long hair and wore sandals in the house of commons. He did a pirouette behind the
Queen, earning the ire of stodgy Monarchists. He wrote
Canada's constitution.
He supposedly smoked pot in the White House. He won a referendum in Quebec. He brought in
Metrication. He went to
China before Nixon. He was pals with
Fidel Castro. (
Nixon even refers to Trudeau as an asshole on tape.) He got married while in office, and he split up, too. He invoked Martial Law (the
War Measures Act) over the
Quebec crisis. He gave the finger to protestors. He liberalized divorce law, and legalized
homosexuality. Et cetera.
There are many things to remember Trudeau for. Love him or hate him, he was a interesting fellow.
Some unforgettable Trudeau lines:
Previous Prime Minister:
Lester B. Pearson (1968)
Next Prime Ministers:
Charles Joseph Clark (1979) and
John Turner (1984)