Trudeaumania: The Rise to Power of Pierre Elliott Trudeau

by Robert Wright

Overview

Finalist for the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize

A Hill-Times Best Book of the Year

Nearly twenty years after his death and more than thirty since his retirement from active politics, Pierre Elliott Trudeau is at long last receding from the lived memory of Canadians. But despite the distance of time, he still holds court in the minds of many, and today his son Justin now lives at 24 Sussex Drive, his own man, though still a Trudeau holding Canada’s highest office.

Trudeaumania is about Pierre Trudeau’s rise to power in 1968. This is a story we thought we knew—the epic saga of the hipster Montrealer who drove up to Ottawa in his Mercedes in 1965, wowed the country with his dictum that “the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation,” rocked the new medium of television like no one since JFK, and in scant months rode the crest of Canadians’ Centennial-era euphoria into power. This is Canada’s own Camelot myth. It embodies the quirkiness, the passion and the youthful exuberance we ascribe to the 1960s even now. Many of us cherish it. Unfortunately, it is almost entirely wrong. In 1968 Trudeau put forward his vision for Canada’s second century, without guile, without dissembling and without a hard sell. Take it or leave it, he told Canadians. If you do not like my ideas, vote for someone else. We took it.

By bestselling and award-winning author Robert Wright, Trudeaumania sets the record straight even as it illuminates this important part of our history and shines a light on our future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781443445023
Publisher:	HarperCollins Canada
Publication date:	09/20/2016
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	692 KB

About the Author

Robert Wright, PhD, is professor of history at Trent University Durham in Oshawa, Ontario. He is the author of the national bestsellers Three Nights in Havana and The Night Canada Stood Still, both of which won the Canadian Authors Association’s Lela Common Award for Canadian History, and Our Man in Tehran, which was made into an award-winning documentary film. He lives in Toronto with his wife and children.

Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Prologue: Trudeau to the Gallows! 1

Chapter 1 The Stubborn Eccentric 29

Chapter 2 The Three Musketeers 53

Chapter 3 Forks in the Road 82

Chapter 4 From Celebration to Survival 114

Chapter 5 The Sacred and the Profane 150

Chapter 6 Now You're Stuck with Me 171

Chapter 7 We Want Trudeau! 201

Chapter 8 Telling It Like It Is 222

Chapter 9 A Man for Tomorrow 249

Chapter 10 The Calm after the Storm 272

Epilogue: Trudeaumania 2.0 287

Notes 301

Index 357

Editorial Reviews

Well-written, engaging.

Canada's History

[An] insightful view of a turning point in Canada’s history . . . does sterling service to Trudeau’s memory.

Kingston Whig-Standard

A fascinating and well-constructed narrative.

Maclean's

Fascinating. More than any other, this aspect of Trudeau’s story requires a historical passport, and Wright provides one.

The Globe and Mail

Well-written, engaging.

Canada’s History

Trudeaumania is a rare type of accessible intellectual history. Wright has struck an excellent balance between his own analysis, quotes from contemporary journalists, and letting Trudeau’s words (and the man is endlessly quotable) speak for themselves.

Quill & Quire

Robert Wright is a historian, one of a very few who can draw the drama out of past events without sacrificing authenticity and integrity.

Barbara McDougall

An absolutely incredible book—Wright’s best by a wide margin. It’s gripping as hell, with a ton of energy and momentum. Like all great history books, this book teaches us as much about the present, and how we got here, as it does about the past.

Andrew Potter