Trudeau, Pierre Elliott (1919-2000)

Pierre Trudeau, prime minister of Canada. His terms of office were notable for the prominence of the Québec separatist movement, which he opposed but tried to appease by encouraging the equal treatment of English- and French- speakers and by the introduction of the Official Languages Act.

Canadian Liberal politician. He was prime minister 1968-79 and 1980-84. In 1980, he was re-elected by a landslide on a platform opposing Québec separatism, and the Québec independence movement was later defeated in a referendum. He repatriated the constitution from the UK in1982, but by 1984 had so lost support that he resigned.

Trudeau was born in Montréal. He studied law, political science, and economics, and began to practise law in Montréal in 1951. He was elected to the Canadian parliament in 1965 as a representative of the Federal Liberal Party. In 1966 he became parliamentary secretary to the prime minister, Lester Pearson, and in 1967 became minister of justice and attorney general. Following the resignation of Pearson, Trudeau became leader of the Liberal Party on 6 April 1968.