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Pierre Trudeau: Canadian Encyclopedia
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Charismatic, bicultural, and intellectual, Pierre Trudeau was the towering figure of the Canadian 20th century. For a complete picture of his legacy one can look to his influential early political essays and to the excellent biographies by Richard Gwyn as well as Christina McCall and Stephen Clarkson, but the first place to turn is Trudeau's own account, in his 1993 Memoirs.
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Trudeau was a charismatic figure who dominated the Canadian political scene, arousing passionate reactions. "He haunts us still", one biography begins. Admirers praise the force of Trudeau's intellect. They salute his political acumen in preserving national unity and bringing into force the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Detractors fault Trudeau for arrogance, deplore economic policies that increased the national debt, and criticize him for increasing a sense of political alienation in Western provinces. But few would dispute the assertion that Trudeau was a towering figure who helped re-define Canada.
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Trudeau, above all, entrenched into Canadian politics the false and deadly new concept that public officials must not "impose" their "personal morality" (which always refers to traditional moral principles only) via legislation on moral issues. He stated on the BBC on July 13, 1970, "you can't ask the totality of the people to accept my private morality as theirs. You have to make sure that the Criminal Code...represents not the private morals of the people who happen to be in government at that time, but represents what the people feel to be the basic public standards of ethical conduct." But of course Trudeau did impose his views on the public. His private, elitist view that morality has no place in law was bulldozed through Parliament and onto Canadian society. His private view was ... that Canadians must be led to want his changes, not that they necessarily wanted them at the time - and Canadians, except for a small minority, were definitely not asking for the legalization of abortion.
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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?
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Two very significant events for Canada occurred duting Trudeau's final term in office. The first was the defeat of the 1980 Quebec referendum proposal on Quebec independence, called by Parti Qu�b�cois governemnt Ren� L�vesque. Secondly, Trudeau's likely most enduring legacy, was the successful 1982 patriation of the Constitution of Canada and the additional Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Quebec refusal to agree to the new constitution is the source of continued acrimony between the federal and Quebec governments.
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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 ... 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 of 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.
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