Former Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau ailing

MONTREAL, (Reuters) -- Pierre Elliott Trudeau, one of Canada's most influential prime ministers, is "not well" and is receiving medical attention at home, his family said Thursday.

The family of Trudeau, 80, issued a brief statement saying they were at his bedside, but his sons did not specify his illness. The family statement also contradicted earlier media reports that Trudeau was in hospital.

"Justin and Sacha Trudeau confirm that their father, the Right Honourable Pierre Elliott Trudeau, is not well," the statement said. "He is resting comfortably with his family and is receiving medical attention."

As television camera crews and other media staked out Trudeau's home in Montreal's upscale Westmount Thursday evening, speculation that the family would make a further comment Thursday appeared unfounded.

Earlier Thursday afternoon, Ann Paris, Trudeau's secretary, told CBC television that he had not fully regained his strength since being hospitalized in January with pneumonia.

"He's at home with his boys and receiving adequate medical attention," Paris said.

In an interview with Reuters, Liberal Senator Serge Joyal said Trudeau's health seemed to fail noticeably after his youngest son Michel, 23, was killed in an avalanche while skiing in British Columbia in November 1998.

"Once you have had a major health challenge like pneumonia when you are 80 years old, and you have to face the psychological and emotional challenge of the loss of your dear son, it multiplies the effort to me made," Joyal said.

Some of Trudeau's neighbors left bouquets of flowers on his doorstep Thursday evening.

The flamboyant millionaire from Montreal was prime minister from 1968 until 1979 and from 1980 until 1984.

During his time in office and even afterward, Trudeau captivated this sprawling nation with his forceful personality and uncompromising vision of a bilingual, equitable society.

Erudite, suave and flamboyant to the point of arrogance, Trudeau was first elected prime minister in 1968 on a wave of "Trudeaumania" in a country that had been averse to political celebrities. He remained in power over the following 16 years, except for a nine-month gap in 1979-80.

Earlier this year, a poll of editors and broadcasters conducted by the Canadian Press and Broadcast News named Trudeau as Canada's newsmaker of the century.

"He has been a giant in Canadian politics," Marc Lalonde, who was finance, justice and energy minister in Trudeau governments, told Reuters Thursday.

Lalonde, who last saw Trudeau during a lunch at the end of July, said he "had begun to show his age," but was as lucid and sharp-witted as ever.

"We talked about general events, obviously some politics," Lalonde added.

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