Pierre Trudeau

Pierre Trudeau was born Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau on October 18, 1919 in Montreal, Quebec. He was the son of Charles-Émile Trudeau and Grace Elliott. Trudeau had an older sister and a younger brother, Suzette and Charles Jr. Trudeau's father died when Pierre was 15. After that, Trudeau and his brother and sister were raised by their mother, who Trudeau remained in contact for the rest of her life.

He started his career in the late 1940's and the early 1950's.

Throughout World War II to the 1950's, little did the know about the man named Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

Then, in 1968, Trudeau started to make headlines, as he became the 15th Prime Minister of Canada after Lester B. Pearson retired as Prime Minister and Liberal. His personal life brought shock and surprises.

Major political achievements include loosening the federal laws against divorce and homosexuality, resolving the most serious terrorist incident in Canadian history by invoking temporary martial law in the October crisis in 1970, defeating the first referendum to decide if the province of Quebec would secede from Canada, bringing the federal constitution under Canadian control from Britain and the entrenchment of a Charter of Rights and Freedoms into that Constitution.

In 1971, Trudeau married Margaret Sinclair, a woman almost thirty years younger than him. Together they had three sons, Justin, Alexandre and Michel.

The Trudeaus separated in 1977 and the divorced was finalized in 1984.

In 1978 his government passed liberalized tax-shelter laws which created a then-unprecedented deluge of Canadian film production(from 1979-1981, approximately 130 feature films were produced, with only about half receiving distribution).

On June 4, 1979, Trudeau was defeated by the Conservatives leader Joe Clark. But just nine months after the Clark government was defeated and weeks after Trudeau resigned, Trudeau undid his resignation and glided his way back to 24 Sussex, with another majority government. This was Trudeau's last chance too.

On June 30, 1984, Trudeau retired and John Turner took his spot in office. Later on, Trudeau fathered a daughter with Deborah Coyne, named Sarah Elisabeth Coyne, when he was 71 years old.

Daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, with Deborah Coyne, born. [1991]

In November of 1998, Canadians saw Trudeau grieving the death of his youngest son Michel in an avalanche. Friends would say that Trudeau was never the same.