7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

Pierre Elliott Trudeau

(b. Oct. 18, 1919, Montreal, Quebec, Can.—d. Sept. 28, 2000,

Montreal)

P

ierre Elliott Trudeau was a Liberal politician and

prime minister of Canada from 1968–79 and 1980–84.

His terms in office were marked by the establishment of

diplomatic relations with China (1970) and improved rela-

tions with France, the defeat of the French separatist

movement, constitutional independence from the British

Parliament, and the formation of a new Canadian consti-

tution with the principal additions of a bill of rights and an

amending formula.

Trudeau grew up in a family of French and Scots-

French descent, in the affluent Montreal suburb of

Outremont. He studied at Jean-de-Brébeuf, an elite Jesuit

preparatory school, and at the University of Montreal,

from which he received a law degree in 1943. He served on

the Privy Council for three years as a desk officer, and in

1950 he helped found the Cité Libre (“Free City”), a monthly

critical review. He practiced law from 1951 to 1961, special-

izing in labour and civil liberties cases.

Trudeau was assistant professor of law at the University

of Montreal from 1961 to 1965, when he was elected as a

“new wave” Liberal to the House of Commons. In 1967 he

toured the French-speaking African nations on behalf of

the prime minister, Lester B. Pearson, who had appointed

him parliamentary secretary (1966) and minister of justice

and attorney general. As minister of justice, Trudeau won

passage of three unpopular social welfare measures—

stricter gun-control legislation and reform of the laws

regarding abortion and homosexuality.

On Pearson’s announcement of his plan to retire,

Trudeau campaigned for the leadership of the Liberal Party.