Pierre Trudeau Case

Pierre Trudeau

A prime minister is a head of a country. A countries prosper depends on a prime minister. Once in a while a country is lucky enough to have a great prime minister. Some prime minister leave there name in history through there work. They are deathless. One of them is Joseph Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau. He was the 15th prime minister of Canada. Pierre Trudeau was born in Montreal in Oct 18 1919. His father was Charles-Émile Trudeau, a French Canadian businessman and lawyer, and his mother was Grace Elliott, who was of French and Scottish descent. He had an older sister named Suzette and a younger brother named Charles Jr.; he remained close to both siblings for his entire life. The family had become quite wealthy by the time Trudeau was in his teens, as his father sold his prosperous gas station business to Imperial Oil.They moved from their modest house at the edge of the city to a three storey home in the posh part of town near Mount Royal.After that in the summer of 1933 they started a two mounth trip to Europe.Pierre like to traveling very much.During the trip they went to countries like Italy, France and Germany.His father died when he was mid teens. This death made him very depressed.After that he remained very close to his mother for the rest of her life. Pierre started his educated life in a local school called Academie Querbes. After that he went to a private French Jesuit school called Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf. In there he learned old languages like Latin and Greek. Pierre was very competitive and always with top marks. He even studied the section of the lessons that the teachers didn't assign. He wanted to learn anything he possibly could. He graduated from there in 1940. After finishing his high school Pierre planned an ambitious canoe trip with his two cousins in the summer of 1941.They started at Montreal canoed along an old voyageur round all the way up to James bay- 800 KM .Then they hitchhiked back to Montreal sending their canoe by train. After that Trudeau began studying law at the University of Montreal. As a student, he was required to join the Canadian Officers Training Corps during the war, but like many Quebeckers, Trudeau was opposed to conscription. In 1943 he receives law degree from University of Montreal. After graduating from university, he passed his bar exams, and then joined in a Master's program at Harvard. In 1946 he went Scorbonne in Paris to study at the École des Sciences Politiques, Where he studied about politics. After that in 1947 he went to London to study at the London School of Economics under Harold Laski who was the professor of this institute from 1926 to 1950.He was there one year. Pierre like to travel other countries. His exploring through other countries increased his knowledge about other countries culture and politics. So, he started Travelling Eastern Europe, and the Middle and Far East to see the destruction of past world wars. He also went to Middle East, where people were at war. After that he went to China and Turkey, where he couldn't speak the language. He was put in a Yugoslavian jail for not having a visa. He also got caught in a crossfire in Jerusalem. He also outsmarted some desert bandits in Iraq. After many tours, he arrived back in Canada the following year. He was very disappointed to see that nothing had changed in Quebec. He saw that the Catholic Church still have too much power and the Quebec province was also supporting the church. At that time he started supporting labour unions, especially during the Asbestos Strike, and criticized the repression of the Union Nationale gunder Premier Duplessis. Asbestos Strike was a four-month labour strike by the asbestos miners which was held around Asbestos, Quebec. It has traditionally been portrayed as a turning point in Quebec history that helped lead to the Quiet Revolution. It also helped Trudeau to launch hisCareer.Pierre thought that he can help to bring change in Quebec by involving in politics.To learn more about politics he got a job in summer of 1950 as legal advisor to the Privy Council Office. In June 1950, with his friends he started the journal "Cite Libre(free city)" as a forum for their ideas. They wrote articles that spoke against the practices of church and government. Throughout 1950's ,he practised law, taught basic business skills to union leaders and continued helping union workers negotiate better deals with their employers. He spoke out against the ways in which church and government misusing their power. Quebec Premier Maurice Duplesis actually blocked his way three times when he applied to teach in university of Montreal but that didn't stop him. In 1961, he started teaching law at the University of Montreal. After that in 1965 Liberal nominated Trudeau and two of his colleagues, Jean Marchand and Gerard Pelletier were invited to run for the party in the federal election as a candidate of Quebec. The result of their election was published on Nov 8,1965. All of them won their seats and he went to Ottawa as a member of parliament. Before he knew it, Pierre was invited to be parliamentary secratory to Prime Minister Lester B Pearson. Six months later, in April 4,1967 Trudeau became Minister of Justice. Right away he started changing Canada's criminal code. Within a year, he had improved the conduct of the divorce laws and liberalized the laws on abortion and homosexuality. His biggest job was convincing Canadians to agree. When Lester Pearson retired from prime minister in 1968, Trudeau was invited to run as a candidate in election of Liberal leader. In April 1968 he elected as a Liberal party leader and became the 15th prime minister of Canada. On April 23, just three days after he took over the reins of Liberal party, he surprised everyone by calling an election for June 25.Now Pierre really got down to work. He had only two months to convince Canadian that he is the right person to lead the country. His campaign was focused on his dream that Canada would be just a society. He believed it could be a humane, caring freedom loving-society of many peoples tradition and beliefs. As he travelled across the country to speak to Canadians thousands came out to listen to his speeches, they treated him like a rock star or sports hero. Women wanted to kiss him and some went hysterical when they saw him. The country seemed to fall in love with Pierre. Trudeaumania was born. Trudeaumania was a mix of joy, hope and mass giddiness that took over the country during Expo 67,which put Canada in the world map and Canada's 100 birthday celebration. Of course, some Canadian doesn't like Pierre or his idea including his belief that Quebec should not separate from Canada. On June 24,the night before the election, Pierre was in Montreal watching a parade that takes place every year on Quebec's national holiday, St-Jean-Baptiste