Pierre Elliott Trudeau: Liberal Party Leader

Liberal Party leader, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was elected as the fifteenth Canadian Prime Minister on June 25, 1968. Trudeau was able to act quickly and exhibit strong leadership towards the F.L.Q. crisis that had developed in Quebec. He had to invoke the War Measures Act, which suspended fundamental civil rights. Trudeau also constructed the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which allowed all Canadians to receive the essential human rights that they would regularly require. He wanted the charter to secure individual rights by prohibiting laws that unfairly segregate imperative human rights. Finally, Trudeau finalized the Canada Health Act which allowed all Canadians to obtain free and proper health care. This act would allow all Canadians

Trudeau was born on October 18, 1919 and grew up to become one of Canada’s greatest, leaders. In the early 1960s, he started getting involved in federal politics by joining the Liberal Party of Canada and was appointed as the Party’s Parliamentary Secretary, and later became the Party’s Minister of Justice. In 1967, Trudeau was persuaded to become the new leader of the Liberal Party and to continue on the legacy of Lester B. Pearson, the previous Prime Minister. On April 20, 1968, he was sworn in as Canada’s fifteenth Prime Minister and served for three non-consecutive terms and one interim. As a result of his brilliant new ideas and charismatic personality, Trudeau obtained appreciation from Canadians and was elected to lead Canada from 1968 to 1979 and again from 1980 to 1984. Sorrowfully, in March of 2000, the Liberal Candidate was diagnosed with prostate cancer and on September 28, 2000, Trudeau was forced to end his battle against cancer and passed away. Trudeau will continuously be remembered for the great skills and accomplishment that he has brought upon the country of

The creation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms can be considered Trudeau’s most highly acknowledged accomplishment in his years as prime minister, giving Canada its current reputation of freedom and diversity. Trudeau wanted this charter to protect individual rights by preventing laws that unfairly discriminate or that belittle the essential human rights. It states that every Canadian receives the rights and freedoms which no government can expel regardless of race, gender or religion. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms that Trudeau wanted for the people of Canada was finally passed on April 17, 1982. Trudeau pledged to bring home a new constitution with charter of rights (Sauerwein). This confirms that Trudeau can make a large commitment and still deliver results, which most politicians do not do. Trudeau essentially won everything he had aimed for all his life (Gwyn). Trudeau set a goal that he wanted to help protect the future for Canadian citizens by creating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and was able to achieve this phenomenal action that will be forever remembered within Canadian history. By patriating the Constitution and its grounded Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Trudeau had disconnected the last colonial links between Great Britain and