Pierre Trudeau Totally Explained

Everything about Pierre Trudeau totally explained

Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau PC CC CH QC FRSC (usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau) (18 October, 1919–28 September, 2000), was the fifteenth Prime Minister of Canada from 20 April, 1968 to 4 June, 1979, and from 3 March, 1980 to 30 June, 1984. Trudeau was the first Canadian Prime Minister born in the 20th century.
Trudeau was a charismatic figure who, from the late 1960s until the mid-1980s, dominated the Canadian political scene and aroused passionate reactions. "He haunts us still," biographers Christina McCall and Stephen Clarkson wrote in 1990. Admirers praise the force of Trudeau's intellect. They salute his political acumen in preserving national unity and establishing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms within Canada's constitution. His detractors accuse him of arrogance, economic mismanagement, and unduly favouring the authority of the federal government in relation to the provinces. Nevertheless, few would dispute that Trudeau was a towering figure who helped redefine Canada.
Trudeau led Canada through some of its most tumultuous times and was often the centre of controversy. Known for his flamboyance, he dated celebrities, sometimes wore sandals in the House of Commons, was accused of using an obscenity during debate there, and once did a pirouette behind the back of Queen Elizabeth II.

Early life and career

Born in Montreal to Charles-Émile Trudeau, a wealthy French Canadian businessman and lawyer, and Grace Elliott, who was of French and Scottish descent. Trudeau attended the prestigious Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf (a private French Roman Catholic school) where he was affiliated with the ideas of clerical fascism and Quebec nationalism. According to long-time friend and colleague Marc Lalonde the contemporary clerically influenced dictatorships of António de Oliveira Salazar in Portugal and Francisco Franco in Spain along with that of Marshal Pétain in Vichy France were seen as models to many young intellectuals educated at elite Jesuit schools in Quebec. Lalonde asserts that Trudeau's later intellectual development as an "intellectual rebel, anti-establishment fighter on behalf of unions and promoter of religious freedom" was a product of his experiences once he left Quebec to study in the United States, France and England and travel the world, an experience which allowed him to break from Jesuit influence and study French philosophers such as Jacques Maritain and Emmanuel Mounier as well as John Locke and David Hume. Trudeau earned a law degree at the Université de Montréal in 1943, followed by a master's in political economy at Harvard. During his attendance at the Université de Montréal, Trudeau was conscripted into the Army, like thousands of other Canadian men, as part of the National Resources Mobilization Act. He joined the Canadian Officers Training Corps and served with other conscripts in Canada. Conscripted soldiers were not liable for overseas military service until after the crisis of late 1944. He said he was willing to become involved in the war, but he believed that to do so would be to turn his back on a Quebec population he considered to have been betrayed by the King government. Trudeau reflected on his opposition to conscription and his doubts about the war in his 1993 Memoirs: "So there was a war? Tough. ... if you were a French Canadian in Montreal in the early 1940s, you didn't automatically believe that this was a just war ... we tended to think of this war as a settling of scores among the superpowers."
   In a 1942 Outremont by-election, he campaigned for the Quebec anti-conscription candidate Jean Drapeau, and was eventually expelled from the Officers' Training Corps for lack of discipline. The National Archives of Canada, in its biographical sketches of Canadian prime ministers, records how on one occasion during the war Trudeau and his friends drove their motorcycles wearing Prussian military uniforms, complete with pointed steel helmets. After the war, he attended Harvard, the Institut d'études politiques de Paris in 1946–47, and spent the following year at the London School of Economics.
   From the late 1940s through the mid-1960s, Trudeau was primarily based in Montreal and was seen by many as an intellectual. In 1949, he was an active supporter of workers in the Asbestos Strike. In 1956, he edited an important book on the subject, La grève de l'amiante, which argued that the strike was a seminal event in Quebec's history, marking the beginning of resistance to the conservative, francophone clerical establishment and anglophone business class that had long ruled the province. Throughout the 1950s, Trudeau was a leading figure in the opposition to the repressive rule of Premier of Quebec Maurice Duplessis as the founder and editor of Cité Libre, a dissident journal that helped provide the intellectual basis for the Quiet Revolution.
   Trudeau was interested in Marxist ideas in the late 1940s. Although he self-identified as a socialist, he never fully endorsed the social democratic Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party—which became the New Democratic Party—remaining skeptical of their ideas about Quebec. From 1949 to 1951 Trudeau worked briefly in the Privy Council Office of the Liberal Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent as an economic policy advisor. During the 1950s, he was blacklisted by the United States and prevented from entering that country because of a visit to a conference in Moscow (where he was arrested for throwing a snowball at a statue of Stalin) and because he subscribed to a number of leftist publications. Trudeau later appealed the ban and it was rescinded. An associate professor of law at the Université de Montréal from 1961 to 1965, Trudeau's views evolved towards a liberal position in favour of individual rights counter to the state and made him an opponent of Quebec nationalism. In economic theory he was influenced by professors Joseph Schumpeter and John Kenneth Galbraith while he was at Harvard. Trudeau criticized the Liberal Party of Lester Pearson when it supported arming Bomarc missiles in Canada with nuclear warheads. Nevertheless, he was persuaded to join the party in 1965, together with his friends Gérard Pelletier and Jean Marchand. These "three wise men" ran successfully for the Liberals in the 1965 election. Trudeau himself was elected in the safe Liberal riding of Mount Royal, in western Montreal, succeeding House Speaker Alan Macnaughton. He would hold this seat for almost 20 years. In 1967, he was appointed to Pearson's cabinet as Minister of Justice.

Justice minister and leadership candidate

As Minister of Justice, Pierre Trudeau was responsible for introducing the landmark Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69, an omnibus bill whose provisions included, among other things, the decriminalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults, the legalization of contraception, abortion and lotteries, new gun ownership restrictions as well as the authorization of breathalyzer tests on suspected drunk drivers. Trudeau famously defended the bill by telling reporters that "there's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation", adding that "what's done in private between adults doesn't concern the Criminal Code". Trudeau also liberalized divorce laws, and clashed with Quebec Premier Daniel Johnson, Sr. during constitutional negotiations.
At the end of Canada's centennial year in 1967, Prime Minister Pearson announced his intention to step down. Trudeau was persuaded to run for the Liberal leadership. His energetic campaign attracted the attention of the news media and mobilized and inspired many youths, who saw Trudeau as a symbol of generational change. Going into the leadership convention, Trudeau was the front-runner, and was clearly the favourite candidate with the Canadian public. Many within the Liberal Party still had deep doubts about him, though. Having joined the party only in 1965, he was still considered an outsider. Many saw him as too radical and outspoken a figure. Some of his views, particularly those on divorce, abortion, and homosexuality, were opposed by the substantial conservative wing of the party. Nevertheless, at the April 1968 Liberal leadership convention, Trudeau was elected leader of the party on the fourth ballot, with the support of 51% of the delegates, defeating some prominent, long-serving Liberals including Paul Martin Sr., Robert Winters and Paul Hellyer. Trudeau was sworn in as Liberal leader and Prime Minister two weeks later on 20 April.

Prime Minister

Trudeau soon called an election, for 25 June (see Canadian federal election, 1968). His election campaign benefited from an unprecedented wave of personal popularity called "Trudeaumania" (a term coined by journalist Lubor J. Zink), which saw Trudeau mobbed by throngs of youths. An iconic moment that influenced the election occurred on its eve, during the annual Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day parade in Montreal, when rioting Quebec separatists threw rocks and bottles at the grandstand where Trudeau was seated. Rejecting the pleas of his aides that he take cover, Trudeau stayed in his seat, facing the rioters, without any sign of fear. The image of the young politician showing such courage impressed the Canadian people, and he handily won the election the next day.
   As Prime Minister, Trudeau espoused participatory democracy as a means of making Canada a "Just Society." He defended vigorously the newly implemented universal health care and regional development programs as means of making society more just.
   During the October Crisis of 1970, the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped British Trade Consul James Cross at his residence on the fifth of October. Five days later, Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte was also kidnapped (and was later murdered, on 17 October). Trudeau responded by invoking the War Measures Act, which gave the government sweeping powers of arrest and detention without trial. Although this response is still controversial and was opposed as excessive by figures like Tommy Douglas, it was met with only limited objections from the public. Trudeau presented a determined public stance during the crisis, answering the question of how far he'd go to stop the terrorists with "Just watch me." Five of the FLQ terrorists were flown to Cuba in 1970 as part of a deal in exchange for James Cross' life, but all members were eventually arrested. The five flown to Cuba were jailed after they returned to Canada years later.
   Trudeau's first years would be most remembered for the passage of his implementation of official bilingualism. Long a goal of Trudeau, this legislation requires all Federal services to be offered in French and English. The measures were very controversial at the time in English Canada, but would be successfully passed and implemented. Trudeau was the first world leader to agree to meet John Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono on their 'tour for world peace'. Lennon said, after talking with Trudeau for 50 minutes, that Trudeau was "a beautiful person" and that "if all politicians were like Pierre Trudeau, there would be world peace."
   On 4 March, 1971, the Prime Minister married Margaret Sinclair, a woman who, at 22, was 30 years his junior. They later divorced.
   In foreign affairs, Trudeau kept Canada firmly in the NATO Alliance, but often pursued an independent path in international relations. He established Canadian diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, and went on a state visit to Beijing. He was known to be a friend of Fidel Castro and Cuba. A mobster has claimed that in 1974 he was hired by New York State mafia members to kill Trudeau, hoping to bait Castro up to a funeral, where they'd kill him. The plan was apparently later rejected. In the election of 1972, Trudeau's Liberal Party won with a minority government, with the New Democratic Party holding the balance of power. This government would move to the left, including the creation of Petro-Canada.
   In May 1974, the House of Commons passed a motion of no confidence in the Trudeau government. The election of 1974 saw Trudeau and the Liberals re-elected with a majority government with 141 of the 264 seats. In September 1975, Finance Minister, John Turner resigned. Trudeau later (in October 1975) instituted Wage and Price Controls, something which he'd mocked Robert Stanfield for proposing during the election campaign a year earlier.
   Trudeau's outward actions during his premiership led many to believe he harboured republican notions; it was even rumoured by Paul Martin, Sr., that the Queen was worried the Crown "had little meaning for him." This may have had to do with the erasure of royal symbols, his documented antics around the Monarch, such as his sliding down Buckingham Palace banisters, and his famous pirouette behind the Queen, captured on film in 1977. He also glaringly breached protocol in 1978 when he was vacationing in Morocco, instead of in Canada to attend the Queen's arrival and departure. However, he was accused of instant monarchism, as well as opportunism during a period of personal unpopularity in the 1970s, when he invited Elizabeth II to attend the first Commonwealth Conference held on Canadian soil. The invitation, and acceptance of it, started the tradition of Elizabeth attending Commonwealth conferences, no matter the location. Also, in 1976, after Robert Bourassa, then Premier of Quebec, begged Trudeau to invite the Queen to the Olympics in Montreal, Trudeau, after obliging him, became annoyed when Bourassa later became unsettled about how unpopular the move might be. He commented directly on the Monarchy in 1967, when he, by then a Cabinet minister, stated "I wouldn't lift a finger to get rid of the monarchy... I think the monarchy, by and large, has done more good than harm to Canada." Ultimately, he experimented with the Crown more than any previous politician, and then entrenched the role of the Crown in Canada when he orchestrated the patriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1982 (see below).
   A worsening economy, burgeoning national debt, and growing public antipathy towards Trudeau's perceived arrogance caused his poll numbers to fall rapidly. Trudeau delayed the election as long as he could, but was forced to call one in 1979.

Defeat and opposition

In the election of 1979, Trudeau's government was defeated by the Progressive Conservatives, led by Joe Clark, who formed a minority government. Trudeau announced his intention to resign as Liberal Party leader; however, before a leadership convention could be held, Clark's government was defeated in the Canadian House of Commons by a Motion of Non-Confidence. The Liberal Party persuaded Trudeau to stay on as leader and fight the election. Trudeau defeated Clark in the February 1980 election, and won a majority government.

Return to power

The Liberal victory in 1980 highlighted a sharp geographical divide in the country: the party had won no seats west of Manitoba. Trudeau had to resort to having Senators appointed to Cabinet to ensure representation from all regions. The introduction of the National Energy Program (NEP) created a firestorm of protest in the Western provinces and increased what many termed "Western alienation." A series of difficult budgets by long-time loyalist Allan MacEachen in the early 1980s didn't improve Trudeau's economic reputation.
Two very significant events for Canada occurred during Pierre Trudeau's final term in office. The first was the defeat of the referendum on Quebec sovereignty, called by the Parti Québécois government of René Lévesque. In the debates between Trudeau and Levesque, Canadians were treated to a contest between two highly intelligent, articulate and bilingual politicians who, despite being bitterly opposed, were each committed to the democratic process. Trudeau promised a new constitutional agreement with Quebec should it decide to stay in Canada, and the "No" side (that is, No to sovereignty) ended up receiving around 60% of the vote.
Trudeau had attempted patriation of the Constitution earlier in his career, but always ran into a combined force of provincial Premiers on the issue of an amending formula. After he threatened to go to London alone, a Supreme Court decision led Trudeau to meet with the Premiers one more time. Trudeau reached an agreement with nine of the Premiers, with the notable exception of Lévesque. Quebec's refusal to agree to the new constitution became a source of continued acrimony between the federal and Quebec governments. Even so, the patriation was achieved; the Constitution Act, 1982 was proclaimed by Queen Elizabeth on 17 April, 1982. Following this, Trudeau commented in his memoirs "I always said it was thanks to three women that we were eventually able to reform our Constitution. The Queen, who was favourable, Margaret Thatcher, who undertook to do everything that our Parliament asked of her, and Jean Wadds, who represented the interests of Canada so well in London... The Queen favoured my attempt to reform the Constitution. I was always impressed not only by the grace she displayed in public at all times, but by the wisdom she showed in private conversation." He lay in state to allow Canadians to pay their last respects. The response by Canadians was unprecedented in its size and public outpouring of emotion. He is survived by his ex-wife Margaret, his sons Justin Trudeau and Alexandre "Sacha" Trudeau, and his daughter, Sarah, whom he fathered with Deborah Coyne. During the state funeral, Justin delivered an emotional yet articulate eulogy that led to widespread speculation in the media that a career in politics was in his future.

Marriage and children

On 4 March 1971, the Prime Minister married Margaret Sinclair, a woman who, at 22, was 30 years his junior. The couple had three children: Justin (b. 25 December 1971), Alexandre (Sacha) (b. 25 December 1973), and Michel (2 October 1975–13 November 1998). They were the subject of enormous press coverage before their well-publicised legal separation in 1977. When their divorce was finalised in 1984, Trudeau became the first Prime Minister to become a single parent as the result of divorce. In 1991, Trudeau became a father again, with Deborah Coyne. This was his first and only daughter, named Sarah. Trudeau didn't marry Coyne.

Spirituality

Trudeau was a Roman Catholic, and attended church throughout his life. While mostly private about his beliefs, he made it clear that he was a believer, stating, in an interview with the United Church Observer in 1971: “I believe in life after death, I believe in God and I’m a Christian.” Trudeau maintained, however, that he preferred to impose constraints on himself rather than have them imposed from the outside. In this sense, he believed he was more like a Protestant than a Catholic of the era in which he was schooled.
Michael W. Higgins, former President of St. Jerome's University, has researched Trudeau’s spirituality and finds that it incorporated elements of three Catholic traditions. The first of these was the Jesuits who provided his education up to the college level. Trudeau frequently displayed the logic and love of argument consistent with that tradition. A second great spiritual influence in Trudeau’s life was Dominican. According to Michel Gourges, Rector of the Collège Dominicain philosophie et théologie, Trudeau “considered himself a lay Dominican.” He studied philosophy under Dominican Father Louis-Marie Régis and remained close to him throughout his life, regarding Régis as “spiritual director and friend.” Another skein in Trudeau’s spirituality was a contemplative aspect acquired from his association with the Benedictine tradition. According to Higgins, Trudeau was convinced of the centrality of meditation in a life fully-lived. He took retreats at Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, Quebec and regularly attended Hours and the Eucharist at Montreal’s Benedictine community.
Although never publicly theological in the way of Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair, nor evangelical, in the way of Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush, Trudeau’s spirituality, according to Higgins, "suffused, anchored, and directed his inner life. In no small part, it defined him.” However, these trends were present in most western countries at the time, including the United States.
Though his popularity had fallen in English Canada at the time of his retirement in 1984, public opinion later became more sympathetic to him, particularly in comparison to his successor, Brian Mulroney.

Constitutional legacy

One of Trudeau's most enduring legacies is the 1982 patriation of the Canadian constitution, including a domestic amending formula and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is seen as advancing civil rights and liberties and, notwithstanding clause aside, has become a cornerstone of Canadian values for most Canadians. It also represented the final step in Trudeau's liberal vision of a fully independent and nationalist Canada based on fundamental human rights and the protection of individual freedoms as well as those of linguistic and cultural minorities. Court challenges based on the Charter of Rights have been used to advance the cause of women's equality, establish French school boards in provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan, and to mandate the adoption of gay marriage all across Canada. Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, has clarified issues of aboriginal and equality rights, including establishing the previously denied aboriginal rights of Métis. Section 15, dealing with equality rights, has been used to remedy societal discrimination against minority groups. The coupling of the direct and indirect influences of the Charter has meant that it has grown to influence every aspect of Canadian life, and the override (notwithstanding clause) of the Charter has been infrequently used. Canadian conservatives have criticized the Constitution for its lack of a system of checks and balances at a time when the courts have been gaining power at the expense of representative government. They claim that it has resulted in too much judicial activism on the part of the courts in Canada. It is also heavily criticized by Quebec Nationalists, who resent that the Constitution was never ratified by any Quebec government and doesn't recognize a constitutional veto for Quebec.

Bilingualism

Bilingualism is one of Trudeau's most lasting accomplishments, having been fully integrated into the Federal government's services, documents, and broadcasting (not, however, in provincial governments, except for Ontario and New Brunswick). While official bilingualism has settled some of the grievances Francophones had towards the federal government, many Francophones had hoped that Canadians would be able to function in the official language of their choice no matter where in the country they were.
However, Trudeau's ambitions in this arena have been overstated: Trudeau once said that he regretted the use of the term "bilingualism", because it appeared to demand that all Canadians speak two languages. In fact, Trudeau's vision was to see Canada as a bilingual confederation in which all cultures would have a place. In this way, his conception broadened beyond simply the relationship of Quebec to Canada.

Cultural legacy

Few outside the museum community recall the tremendous efforts Trudeau made, in the last years of his tenure, to see to it that the National Gallery of Canada and the Canadian Museum of Civilization finally had proper homes in the National capital. The Trudeau government also implemented programs which mandated Canadian content in film, and broadcasting, and gave substantial subsidies to develop the Canadian media and cultural industries. Though the policies remain controversial, Canadian media industries have become stronger since Trudeau's arrival.
On the other side of the ledger, Trudeau was criticized as denigrating or even erasing large segments of Canada's historic culture to fit his programs, and using the government's media subsidies to that end.

Legacy with respect to the West

In the provinces west of Ontario the memory of Trudeau is notably less favourable than it's in the rest of English-speaking Canada. He is often regarded as the father of "Western alienation." The reasons for this are various. Some of them are ideological. Many Canadians disapproved of official bilingualism and many other of Trudeau's policies, which they saw as moving the country away from its historic traditions and attachments, and markedly toward the political left. Such feelings were perhaps strongest in the West. Other reasons for western alienation are more plainly regional in nature. To many westerners, Trudeau's policies seemed to favour other parts of the country, especially Ontario and Quebec, at their expense. Outstanding among such policies was the National Energy Program, which was seen as unfairly depriving western provinces of the full economic benefit from their oil and gas resources, in order to pay for nation-wide social programs, and make regional transfer payments to poorer parts of the country. Sentiments of this kind were especially strong in oil-rich Alberta.
More particularly, two incidents involving Trudeau are remembered having fostering Western alienation, and as emblematic of it. During a visit to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on 17 July, 1969, Trudeau met with a group of protesting farmers, angry that the federal government wasn't doing more to market their wheat, to one of whom he responded, "Why should I sell your wheat? It's your wheat." Years later, on a train trip through Salmon Arm, British Columbia, he "gave the finger" to a group of protesters, through the carriage window. Generally forgotten is that Trudeau's question in Saskatoon was rhetorical and followed by long explanation that, in epitome, said that the governments' role was only to help farmers to sell their own wheat, and told of some of the difficulties involved in doing so on the international market; likewise, that the protesters in Salmon Arm were shouting blatantly anti-French and anti-Quebec slogans.

Legacy with respect to Quebec

Trudeau's legacy in Quebec is mixed. Many credit his actions during the October Crisis as crucial in terminating the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) as a force in Quebec, and ensuring that the campaign for Quebec separatism took a democratic and peaceful route. However, his imposition of the War Measures Act—which received majority support at the time—is remembered by some in Quebec and elsewhere as an attack on democracy. Trudeau is also credited by many for the defeat of the 1980 Quebec referendum.
At the federal level, Trudeau faced almost no strong political opposition in Quebec during his time as Prime Minister. For instance, his Liberal party captured 74 out of 75 Quebec seats in the 1980 federal election). Provincially, though, Quebeckers elected twice the pro-sovereignty Parti Québécois. Moreover, there were not, then, any pro-sovereignty federal parties such as the Bloc Québécois. Since the signing of the Constitutional Act of Canada in 1982, the Liberal Party of Canada has never succeeded in winning a majority of seats in Quebec. Trudeau is disliked by many Québécois, particularly in the news media, the academic and political establishments. While his reputation has grown in English Canada since his retirement in 1984, it hasn't improved in Quebec.

Overview

Trudeau remains well-regarded by many Canadians. However, the passage of time has only slightly softened the strong antipathy he inspired among his opponents. Trudeau's charisma and confidence as Prime Minister, and his championing of the Canadian identity are often cited as reasons for his popularity. His strong personality, contempt for his opponents and distaste for compromise on many issues have made him, as historian Michael Bliss puts it, "one of the most admired and most disliked of all Canadian prime ministers." Trudeau's electoral successes were matched in the 20th century only by those of Mackenzie King. In all, Trudeau is undoubtedly one of the most dominant and transformative figures in Canadian political history.

Supreme Court appointments

Trudeau chose the following jurists to be appointed as justices of the Supreme Court of Canada by the Governor General:

Bora Laskin (March 19, 1970–March 17, 1984; as Chief Justice, December 27, 1973)
Joseph Honoré Gérald Fauteux (as Chief Justice, March 23, 1970–December 23, 1973; appointed a Puisne Justice December 22, 1949)
Brian Dickson (March 26, 1973–June 30, 1990; as Chief Justice, April 18, 1984)
Jean Beetz (January 1, 1974–November 10, 1988)
Louis-Philippe de Grandpre (January 1, 1974–October 1, 1977)
Willard Zebedee Estey (September 29, 1977–April 22, 1988)
Yves Pratte (October 1, 1977–June 30, 1979)
William Rogers McIntyre (January 1, 1979–February 15, 1989)
Antonio Lamer (March 28, 1980–January 6, 2000)
Bertha Wilson (March 4, 1982–January 4, 1991)
Gerald Le Dain (May 29, 1984–November 30, 1988)

Honours

Governor General, or by Queen Elizabeth II herself:

Trudeau was made a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada on April 4, 1967, giving him the style "The Honourable" and post-nominal "PC" for life.

He was styled "The Right Honourable" for life on his appointment as Prime Minister on April 20, 1968.

Trudeau was made a Companion of Honour in 1984.

He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada (post-nominal "CC") on June 24, 1985.

He was granted arms, crest, and supporters by the Canadian Heraldic Authority on December 7, 1994. � Other honours include:

The Canadian news agency Canadian Press named Trudeau "Newsmaker of the Year" a record ten times, including every year from 1968 to 1975, and two more times in 1978 and 2000. In 1999, CP also named Trudeau "Newsmaker of the 20th Century." Trudeau declined to give CP an interview on that occasion, but said in a letter that he was "surprised and pleased." In many informal and unscientific polls conducted by Canadian Internet sites, users also widely agreed with the honour.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Duke University in 1974.

In 1983–84, he was awarded the Albert Einstein Peace Prize, for negotiating the reduction of nuclear weapons and Cold War tension in several countries.

The Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School in Markham, Ontario is named in his honour.

Collège Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau in Winnipeg, Manitoba is also named in his honour.

The Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (YUL) in Montreal, Quebec was named in his honour, effective January 1, 2004.

In 2004, viewers of the CBC series The Greatest Canadian voted Trudeau the third greatest Canadian.

The government of British Columbia named a peak in the Cariboo Mountains Mount Pierre Elliott Trudeau, on June 10, 2006. The peak is located in the Premier Range, which has many peaks named for British Columbian Premiers and Canadian Prime Ministers.

Trudeau was awarded a 2nd dan black belt in judo by the Takahashi School of Martial Arts in Ottawa. Trudeau in film Trudeau's life is depicted in two CBC Television mini-series. The first one, Trudeau (with Colm Feore in the title role), depicts his years as Prime Minister. Trudeau II: Maverick in the Making (with Stéphane Demers as the young Pierre, and Tobie Pelletier as him in later years) portrays his earlier life.
The 1999 documentary film explores the impact of Trudeau's vision of Canadian bilingualism through interviews with eight young Canadians.
He was the co-subject along with René Lévesque in the Donald Brittain-directed documentary mini-seriesThe Champions.

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