Pierre Elliott Trudeau died five years ago on September 23, 2005, but his memory lingers on.
My first real view close-up view of Trudeau was in 1965, when he was the candidate, for the first time, in the very English-speaking constituency of Mount Royal. I was an alderman and lifelong resident of Town of Mount Royal, a suburb of Montreal, and we had been asked to host what may have been Trudeau’s first coffee-party. My wife, Rosslyn, called me at the office to ask me to come home, because she was concerned that the 30 Anglo ladies, she had invited from the neighbourhood, might be a little frosty towards a French-Canadian candidate. The riding was very English-speaking and there had been a long line of MP’s representing the riding, whose first language was English. Trudeau, wearing sandals, a leather jacket and an open shirt, arrived sharp on time. I introduced him and without notes, he gave a very brief, logical and appealing resume of the issues and his political views. He then asked for questions and a lady who was blind asked sternly, “What are you going to do for the blind?” He was able to cite the law concerning the blind and then to suggest what seemed to be very rational solutions to the various problems of the blind. The next lady was a professor at Sir George Williams College and she asked, “And what are you going to do for the professors?”
Trudeau explained that he was a professor at the Université de Montréal and shared the same views on what should be done for higher education, which he explained in detail. As the questions continued, he used his wit, eloquence and very profound knowledge on so many subjects that the room warmed up and the ladies were without exception enraptured. When it was over, he got into his Mercedes convertible parked at the door and if he had said, “Who’s for a weekend in New York?” there would have been a crush of all of the ladies present, trying to get into the car, including the blind lady.
William Tetley QC, professor, McGill University Law Faculty and Counsel to Langlois Kronström Desjardins of Montreal and Quebec City
Email: william [dot] tetley [at] mcgill [dot] ca/">william [dot] tetley [at] mcgill [dot] ca