Former Canada PM Trudeau was a flamboyant visionary

Former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau is shown in this November 1993 photo

MONTREAL, (Reuters) -- Former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who died Thursday at age 80, captivated this sprawling nation with his forceful personality and uncompromising vision of a bilingual, equitable society.

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

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 was a giant in Canadian politics," said Marc Lalonde, who was finance, justice and energy minister in Trudeau governments.

On becoming prime minister, Trudeau charmed Canada with his aristocratic attitude and exuberance. He championed the ideal of a country united by a strong central government, with English and French as its two official languages.

Trudeau was also an arch-foe of separatists in the mainly French-speaking province of Quebec.

Political analysts consider his forceful campaign in the run-up to a 1980 Quebec referendum on a form of secession for the province responsible for the resounding 60 percent to 40 percent defeat of the separatists. At the time, the independence movement was led by popular Quebec Premier Rene Levesque.

That battle weakened the Quebec separatist cause until its resurgence in the early 1990s, when Brian Mulroney was prime minister, and its near victory in a second referendum on independence in 1995.

It also left a generation of young voters in the province of 7.3 million questioning their national identity.

"I can say now that I am a son of Rene Levesque and a son of Pierre Trudeau and that is the Quebec dilemma," said Andre Gobeil, a 33-year-old school counselor from Matane, Quebec.

During his years in office, Trudeau was disparaged almost equally by Quebec separatists and Canadians from oil-rich Western Canada who felt short-changed by his controversial national energy program in 1980.

The program placed strict controls on domestic oil prices just as world prices were skyrocketing. Albertans still bristle at its mention, calling it a central Canadian assault on the west.

But even political opponents had a grudging admiration for a politician who held steadfast to his vision that Canada was more than a collection of provinces.

"While Mr. Trudeau and I had different visions of our country, I admire his intellect, passion and commitment to the public interest," said former Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark. "He transformed our country and inspired it."

When Trudeau turned 80 last October, analysts, commentators and Canadians at large reflected with a mix of admiration and disaffection on his political career and the enigma he remains.

He brought home Canada's Constitution from Britain in 1982 and gave the country its groundbreaking Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But Trudeau was also Canada's only prime minister to suspend civil liberties in peacetime.

After Quebec separatist extremists kidnapped a British diplomat in October 1970 and killed a provincial cabinet minister held in captivity, Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act. This allowed police to detain hundreds of people without charges, while troops patrolled the streets of Montreal.

Asked during the height of the 1970 "October Crisis" how far he would go to ensure law and order, Trudeau replied with typical verve: "Just watch me."

Despite Trudeau's celebrity as one of the most easily recognizable of Canadian public personalities, he largely shunned the spotlight after stepping down from power.

In recent years, Trudeau could still be seen walking from his art deco home on the steep slopes of Montreal's Mont Royal to his downtown law office or at the odd social gala, but he politely declined requests for interviews.

"He is a very distant man ... even from our perspective. I guess he has had kind of a lonely life in some way," Trudeau's 25-year-old son, Sacha, said in a documentary broadcast earlier this year on the CTV television network.

Yet Trudeau's dashing demeanor endeared him to others. He usually wore a red rose in his suit lapel in the House of Commons, and once was photographed doing a pirouette behind the Queen.

Lean and athletic, Trudeau enjoyed canoeing through Canada's remote north. When it came time to leave office in 1984, he drove off jauntily in a vintage sports car.

"He gave us this optimistic and romantic view of the country that was lost when he was gone from the scene," said Catherine Annau, director of a documentary on the effect Trudeau and his ideas had on a generation of Canadians.

Trudeau was born on October 18, 1919, to a wealthy French-Canadian businessman and a mother of French and Scottish origin. He earned a law degree and studied at Harvard, the Sorbonne and London School of Economics before traveling the world.

He returned to Canada to teach law and was first elected to Parliament for the Liberal Party in 1965. As justice minister in 1967-68, he liberalized laws on abortion and homosexuality.

A millionaire bachelor when he took power, Trudeau's private life was the stuff of rumor. He squired singer Barbra Streisand, actresses Margot Kidder and Kim Cattrall, and had a seven-year relationship with classical guitarist Liona Boyd.

At age 51 in 1971, he married Margaret Sinclair, a woman 29 years his junior. They had three sons before their marriage collapsed in 1977 and Margaret made international headlines partying at a nightclub with the Rolling Stones.

Trudeau and his ex-wife were reunited briefly in November 1998 to mourn their 23-year-old son, Michel, who was killed by an avalanche while hiking in British Columbia.

Friends of Trudeau said he was devoted to his two remaining sons and 8-year-old daughter, Sarah, born to constitutional expert Deborah Coyne.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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