Pierre Trudeau lost out on a Rhodes Scholarship and chose politics instead
At the Jesuit college Jean-de-Brebeuf, young Pierre Trudeau collected what its head called a hundred prizes and honourable mentions, then set his sights on a Rhodes Scholarship. He did not get it. After advice from mentors including Henri Bourassa, he studied law in Montreal and aimed for politics, a path that led to the prime minister's office.
Trudeau was born in 1919 in Outremont, Quebec, to a French-Canadian businessman and a mother of mixed Scottish and French-Canadian roots, and he was fluently bilingual from childhood. His father built up a gas station chain, mines, an amusement park and a minor-league baseball team, and when he died in 1935 each child inherited $5,000, leaving Pierre financially independent. The family line traces back to a carpenter from La Rochelle who reached Canada in 1659.
Before entering federal politics, Trudeau co-founded the review Cite Libre in 1950, opposed Quebec's conservative Union Nationale government and taught law at the Universite de Montreal. He joined the Liberals in 1965, won a seat in the House of Commons and served as justice minister. His charisma sparked a wave of enthusiasm nicknamed Trudeaumania, which carried him to the party leadership and the prime ministership in 1968.
He went on to win four federal elections and served non-consecutive terms, from 1968 to 1979 and from 1980 to 1984, for a total of 15 years and 164 days, third longest in Canadian history. His government introduced official bilingualism and multiculturalism, converted the country to the metric system, created Via Rail and brought Canada into the G7. In 1982 he patriated the constitution and added the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, completing full Canadian sovereignty. Abroad he kept some distance from the United States while building ties with China.
His economic choices, including Petro-Canada and the National Energy Program, provoked lasting resentment in oil-rich Western Canada. He retired shortly before the 1984 election, practised law in Montreal and died in 2000 at 80. Historians rank him highly, yet opinions of him divide sharply: admirers praise his intellect and his defence of national unity, while critics fault his economic management and centralising instincts.
Source: Pierre Trudeau
