When was pierre trudeau born

Although she spoke and wrote French, she preferred English, which would be the language of the Trudeau home. Charlie and Grace married in and they soon had children, first Suzette in and then Pierre in Another child, Charles, whom the family would call Tip, followed in By this time, Charlie had largely abandoned his commercial law practice in favour of a business career. It was a brilliant device.

The number of automobiles in Quebec swelled from 41, in to 97, in and would almost double again by , when it reached , At the end of the s the family moved from a modest row house in Outremont to a much larger but unpretentious dwelling there that could accommodate not only the Trudeaus but also a maid and a chauffeur. An ebullient, rough-edged businessman, he often gambled long into the night. There is evidence of hard living, including records of his large losses and wins, as well as family memories of his frequent absences.

Yet he was a doting and demanding father who deeply impressed Pierre and they exchanged extremely affectionate letters. They took their toll on Charlie as well. In the spring of he had a heart attack and died at age His death deeply affected Pierre, who concluded, probably correctly, that it was the result of the social demands of the business world.

Pierre became resistant to these practices and an ascetic in many of his own tastes. He did not gamble, disdained smoking, drank very little, and avoided wild parties. Such aloofness was made easier by the considerable fortune he had inherited, which gave him a freedom enjoyed by few others of his generation. Trudeau was introduced to nationalist thought and took part in rallies against perceived threats to the church and the French Canadian people.

An outstanding student, he reflected the milieu in which he thrived, one that was increasingly nationalist, supportive of corporatism, critical of capitalism and democracy, and wary of British and Canadian foreign policy as it moved hesitatingly forward on the road to war. He doted on her and she on him. His exceptional academic record pleased her greatly and she granted him the freedom that a favoured child so often obtains.

With no financial concerns, he travelled frequently to New York, spent summers at Old Orchard Beach in Maine, took long canoe trips through the Canadian Shield, wildly drove a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and bought books, records, and concert tickets few of his classmates could afford.

Few students enlisted and indifference was the prevailing mood. Earlier, Trudeau had casually suggested to his American girlfriend, Camille Corriveau, that he might enlist for the sake of adventure. Now he took up the call of Mayor Houde and others who denounced conscription and urged French Canadians to defy mandatory registration for military service.

Charismatic, brilliant, and often outrageous, Hertel increasingly drew Pierre and his brother Charles into his circle. In the case of Pierre, he became a confidant, a confessor, and an inspiration in the early s, even though his superiors moved him to Sudbury, Ont.

Trudeau wrote to him regularly and visited him in Sudbury. An advocate of personalism, Hertel encouraged Trudeau to read philosophers Jacques Maritain and Emmanuel Mounier and the devout but rebellious young Catholic found their approach to personal liberty emancipating, although he also found corporatist thought and the conservative nationalism of Charles Maurras compelling. That full understanding, however, would come slowly. Hertel placed the revolution within the anti-bourgeois and anti-democratic traditions in Catholic thought.

He and Trudeau debated how the latter should be involved; radical approaches ranging from the anti-Semitic and conservative ideas of Charles Maurras to the revolutionary theories of Georges Sorel and Leon Trotsky all had appeal. Then, the spirit of violent revolution passed, although Trudeau was involved in the Bloc Populaire Canadien, which had taken the lead in the anti-conscription campaign.

Although he had disliked law school intensely, he finished first in his class. He appears to have wanted to escape and to seek a new experience, initially soliciting a diplomatic post and then applying to Harvard University for graduate work. In the fall of he obtained permission to leave the country in order to study politics and economics at Harvard.

The university made a deep impact on Trudeau, although he frequently resisted the Anglo-American liberalism that pervaded it in the mid s. His views changed while he was there. He was influenced by the numerous European exiles, many of them Jewish, who taught him brilliantly, notably Wassily W. He heard about John Maynard Keynes for the first time and came to believe that his earlier classical education had been sadly deficient.

He was also intrigued by liberal and democratic traditions and the separation of the spiritual from the secular in public life. Puzzled, she asked what he meant. It was the war, the war, the WAR!

In Trudeau left Harvard with many questions, an abiding interest in the promise of Keynesian economics for democratic renewal, and a new scepticism about his earlier education and beliefs. Like Trudeau, Mounier was discarding corporatist, collectivist, and elitist aspects of pre-war personalism and shaping the doctrine for the post-war era. Laski and the London School of Economics had a greater intellectual influence on him than his experiences in Paris, particularly in spurring his understanding of democratic socialism.

While his views were changing, Trudeau kept in touch with old friends in Quebec. There was an opacity in his writings; highly expressive language accompanied sometimes contradictory and confused views. To Lessard, he still wrote about the dream of Laurentia. After his London experience, he set out on a world tour in the spring of He justified the trip as research for his thesis, but there is little evidence of sustained work on the topic.

Wearing a scraggly beard, Trudeau played a small role, marching in a head-cloth and shorts. The amused miners called him St Joseph; the police arrested him. He soon returned to Montreal, but the strike profoundly affected him as he linked the evidence of working class action with his study of socialism, labour, and democracy. He met with members of the Canadian Congress of Labour and considered becoming its research director.

During the following years he acted as legal counsel for unions throughout the province. As the attraction of socialism intensified, his affection for Quebec nationalism waned, especially since nationalism was so strongly represented by the conservative forces within the Quebec Catholic Church and, of course, by the Duplessis government, which he regarded as archaic and out of step. Like many of his generation, he was angry. Once again, he left Quebec. In the late summer of Trudeau became a federal public servant in the Privy Council at Ottawa.

Although the choice shocked Pelletier and other friends, Ottawa beckoned to many highly educated francophones. He came to believe that it had played an important part in limiting extremes while simultaneously affording the opportunity for political experimentation and the correction of social inequities.

While retaining the notion that provincial and federal governments had clearly delineated responsibilities, he shared the assumption, common in Ottawa, that Keynesian economics provided the federal government with the opportunity and the responsibility to intervene in the economy to assure prosperity and security.

He worked long hours and quickly impressed his superior, Robert Gordon Robertson, and his colleagues with his intelligence and diligence. He chafed against the anonymity imposed on public servants. In the summer of , after writing an anonymous attack on Canadian involvement in the Korean War, he quit his job.

His romance ended when Segerstrale refused to convert to Catholicism. Unlike many of his francophone colleagues, Trudeau would remain a devout Catholic. Let us be coolly intelligent. Things were not always cool. English Canadian intellectuals became curious about the publication and invited Trudeau to their gatherings, especially the conferences of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs and the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs.

His flawless English, familiarity with contemporary social science, and striking physicality intrigued those who encountered him in such settings. So did his thoughts. However, his strong anticlericalism abated when it became clear that the church itself faced enormous strain in adapting to the rapid changes in Quebec as the economy became more sophisticated and modern communications, especially television, transformed daily life.

He began to shift his attention to political institutions, notably the governments in Quebec City and Ottawa. Duplessis establish an administration as efficient and honest as the federal government, and we shall then consider the rivalry to be a fair one. Trudeau, then, was never predictable. A strong opponent of Duplessis and the Union Nationale, he refused to join the coalition that emerged under the leadership of the Liberal Party to defeat the government.

The essay he contributed to the study of the asbestos strike of , published in , revealed his deep distrust of the Quebec Liberal Party and his disillusionment with the detritus of earlier political and ideological battles.

The past, it seemed, bore mainly bad lessons for the future. As Trudeau became clearer in his writings, he seemed more muddled in politics. Now a familiar figure on Quebec television and a target for attack not only by Duplessis but also by Quebec socialists, Trudeau took the leadership of the union. His decision to accept the position seemed a whimsical gesture to many. The administration was progressive but also nationalist and its nationalism increasingly troubled him.

These plans collapsed when Pearson changed his position on nuclear weapons in January More difficult were his breaks with Vadeboncoeur, perhaps his closest friend from childhood and adolescence, and Hertel, his early mentor. He publicly attacked his former teacher. Hopes for an agreement on a way to amend the constitution through the so-called Fulton—Favreau formula collapsed, scandals undermined the cabinet ministers from Quebec, and Pearson groped for a new path through which his government could find a response to the challenge of Quebec nationalism and separatism.

Trudeau had little faith in the royal commission on bilingualism and biculturalism, which he correctly believed was moving towards the recommendation of special status for Quebec. On 10 Sept. The eloquent labour leader Marchand was the prize candidate and it was he who insisted that the unpredictable Trudeau, who had so recently denounced Pearson, accompany him to Ottawa.

After some delay, the party opened the strongly Liberal seat of Mount Royal for Trudeau. He won it with a large margin on 8 November and would hold it until the end of his political career in The Liberals failed to win a majority, however, and parliamentary disorder persisted. An angry Marchand rebuked him and Trudeau then accepted the position; his precise duties were not defined. The close attention Trudeau had paid to the constitution while working in the Privy Council in suddenly became valuable political capital as constitutional discussions reached a deadlock in In March he and Marchand gained control of the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal Party, which had established its own administration.

On 5 June the provincial Liberals went down to a stunning defeat. It rejected special status for Quebec and opting out of federal programs by Quebec alone. Trudeau was making his mark privately, not publicly, and he remained largely unknown in English Canada.

Yet events were determining his fate. Centennial year, , brought not only the celebration of Canada with its wildly successful Expo 67 in Montreal but also constitutional crisis as Johnson pressed his demands. Trudeau quickly went to work and displayed an astonishing discipline that shocked bureaucrats who had heard the many rumours about his playboy lifestyle. He concentrated primarily on the constitution and the much-delayed reform of the Criminal Code.

In a Canada that was suddenly becoming permissive and liberal, he struck the loudest notes. The house unanimously passed his divorce reforms in December , shortly after Pearson had declared his intention to resign as soon as a new party leader was chosen.

The race for a successor began immediately. Pearson told Marchand he must run because the Liberal principle of alternation between French- and English-speaking leaders and the Quebec crisis required that he do so. In January , after a vacation in Tahiti, where he had become entranced with the stunning Margaret Sinclair, daughter of a former Liberal cabinet minister, Trudeau met with Marchand and Pelletier. Marchand would not run; Trudeau must. Typically, Trudeau hesitated even though he had seriously considered the prospect.

He came up with the idea of charging members a nominal fee for discounts on gasoline, towing and repair costs. Another brother, born in , died in infancy. Trudeau was just 15 when his father died suddenly from pneumonia at age His father's death had instilled a deep sense of responsibility in Trudeau towards his family.

Following his graduation in , he enrolled at Harvard and received his masters in political economy. He then studied for a year at the London School of Economics.

He was in China as the Communist Party took over. The authors had access to Trudeau's personal papers and had discussions with him before his death in According to the book, Trudeau kept his early ideas a secret, even from his children and friends. Photographer Lynn Ball talks about one of his more famous election photos of Trudeau. Following his death, several friends of Trudeau have a lighthearted discussion about his charismatic personality.

After the death of Pierre Trudeau in , reporter David Halton looks back on his impact as a world leader. Upon the death of Pierre Trudeau in , reporter Jason Moscovitz looks back on the life and leadership of the…. In a vitriolic indictment of the Meech Lake constitutional accord, Trudeau warns that Canadians can say goodbye to a unified…. Trudeau makes a rousing farewell speech to mark his retirement as prime minister in Trudeau steps down as prime minister after a contemplative evening walk through an Ottawa snowstorm.

Prime minister-designate Pierre Trudeau delivers a jubilant acceptance speech on his win. His youngest son Michel died in an avalanche. On September 28, , Trudeau passed away, just short of his 81st birthday. His passing prompted tears and tributes across all of Canada. In , his oldest son Justin followed in his political footsteps. He won his bid to become a Canada's prime minister as the leader of the Liberal Party. We strive for accuracy and fairness.

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Son of the late Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Justin Trudeau followed in his father's famous footsteps in and became Canada's prime minister. The first female prime minister of Britain, Margaret Thatcher was a controversial figurehead of conservative ideology during her time in office. Tony Blair was the leader of the British Labour Party from to , and prime minister of the United Kingdom from to He is known for his policy of "appeasement" toward Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.

Alexander Graham Bell was one of the primary inventors of the telephone, did important work in communication for the deaf and held more than 18 patents. Louis Joliet was a 17th century Canadian explorer who, aided by Native American communities, explored the origins of the Mississippi River. Benazir Bhutto became the first female prime minister of Pakistan in She was killed by a suicide bomber in Robert Mugabe became prime minister of Zimbabwe in and served as the country's president from until his forced resignation in Pierre Trudeau was the 15th prime minister of Canada, famous for his youthful energy, his charismatic and controversial personality and his commitment to Canadian unity.