Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Vol. 1, 1919–1968

Graeme S. Mount is a professor of history at Laurentian University. He
is the author of Canada’s Enemies: Spies and Spying in the Peaceable
Kingdom, Chile and the Nazis, and The Diplomacy of War: The Case of
Korea.

It is appropriate that John English should be Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s
biographer. English has already excelled as Lester Pearson’s
biographer, and he has also served as a Liberal Member of Parliament. He
knows how to write biographies, and he knows whereof he writes.

This volume deals with the years 1919–1968, before Trudeau became
prime minister. Having received a narrow French-Canadian Jesuit
education, he failed to appreciate the momentous issues at stake during
World War II, a period of his life that Max and Monique Nemni have
revealed as even less admirable than it appears in these pages. However,
Trudeau more than benefited from opportunities in Mexico, at Harvard, at
the London School of Economics, and by travels through postwar Europe,
the Soviet Union, and Asia. While he remained a faithful Roman Catholic,
Trudeau no longer accepted the Church as the ultimate authority. He came
to realize that Canada was a pluralistic society and that his own
tradition as well as others had merit.

In other ways too, he could be rebellious. Fellow Jesuits sent his
favourite priest/teacher, Franзois Hertel, from Montreal to Sudbury,
where his influence would supposedly be minimal, and Trudeau maintained
contact with him.

Trudeau’s French-speaking father and English-speaking mother launched
him on the road to fluency in both languages and appreciation of both
cultures—although at one point he had a strong aversion to anything
British. As a young adult, he visited the People’s Republic of China
and decided that it was here to stay. That decision would have
consequences for subsequent Canadian diplomacy and trade, as well as for
many personal careers.

English was the first biographer to have access to many of Trudeau’s
private letters, which his executors (including son Alexandre) made
available. Alexandre (Sacha) also contributed insights, including that
the early death of Trudeau’s father, a successful businessman, made
the future prime minister suspicious of business and what he associated
with business: late nights, heavy drinking, and smoking. English
discusses at length Trudeau’s romances, his role in Quebec’s famous
asbestos strike, and his interactions with other key players in
Quebec’s Quiet Revolution.