Pierre Elliot Trudeau

Trudeau was born in Montreal, the privileged son of a multimillionaire. Intellectually brilliant, he studied law and political science at the University of Montreal, and later at Harvard and the Sorbonne. A free and independent thinker, he travelled widely and experienced numerous adventures. He was an expert in judo, and was an avid swimmer and canoeist. Trudeau became Prime Minister of Canada in 1968; he served until 1979 and then again from 1980 to 1984. His style was patrician. Supporters called him brilliant- opponents branded him arrogant. He will be remembered chiefly for his tough handling of the FLQ Crisis in 1970, his vast expansion of federal spending, and for bringing our constitution under complete Canadian control in 1982.