The Champions: Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Rene Levesque Pierre Trudeau (1919-2000) is one of Canada's best known political figures. He served as prime minister of Canada from 1968-79 and 1980-84, and his achievements include the patriation of the Canadian constitution, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982), and the defeat of Quebec separatists in the 1980 referendum. H e is also a controversial figure: Claire Hoy captured the competing and contradictory images associated with his public portrait when he described him as "the most maddening, pleasing, perplexing, loved, hated, worshipped, vilified, vulgar, sophisticated, stubborn, passionate, obnoxious, arrogant, frivolous, brilliant politician this country has ever produced." Rene Levesque (1922-1987) was a journalist, a Liberal Cabinet minister in the Lesage government during Quebec's "Quiet Revolution," founder of the Parti Quebecois political party, and premier of Quebec from 1976-1985. His separatist vision clashed with that of the federalist Pierre Trudeau. Their struggle was epic - both were champions of their respective causes, and their competing dreams shaped contemporary Canadian history in profound ways. Back to Lecture Outline

* Lecture Notes (same as last class) *

* POWERPOINT SLIDES (same as last class) *

Reading:

John English versus David Frum, 25 March 2011 -- "Was Pierre Trudeau a Disaster for Canada?"

An additional reading on Trudeau and Levesque can be accessed at:

www.lackenbauer.ca/Hist103/cook.pdf

An additional quote to think about....

"Pierre Trudeau and Rene Levesque: two Quebeckers devoted to the survival and full flowering of a modern French-speaking society. In Levesque's view that could be achieved only if his "minor people" became a "great people": sovereignty for Quebec. Trudeau believed that the future of his "little homeland" would best be guaranteed through participation in the "bigger homeland," a federal system built on equality between French- and English-speaking Canadians throughout Canada. For the Francophone canadien, Trudeau, Canada was central; for the Quebecois, Levesque, Canada was marginal-at best. Nevertheless, both leaders, Trudeau and Levesque, were, in Gerard Bergeron's happy phrase, "our two-sided mirror" -- both reflections of the same community."

  -- Ramsay Cook, "The Trudeau-Levesque Debate"

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