Event Summary:
Citizen of the World
The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Volume One: 1919-1968
John English
15 November, 2006
Nicholas Hoare
Summary by
Karen Lu
SDF Research Associate and Program Coordinator
Canadian Institute of International Affairs, National Office
On a dark and rainy November night, a charming bookstore in downtown Toronto’s St. Lawrence Market swells with people and chatter. Among the 150 people gathered are many distinguished Canadian figures such as: The Honourable Alistair Gillespie, former Liberal Cabinet Minister; Albert Breton, economist and special adviser to Pierre Trudeau; and Sylvia Ostry, academic and specialist in international trade. All have gathered for the widely-anticipated launch of prominent Canadian historian and former Liberal MP John English’s new book, Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliot Trudeau: Volume One: 1919-1968.
The Toronto branch of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, in cooperation with Publisher Alfred A. Knopf Canada, had the honour of hosting the intimate wine and cheese event with the author at Nicholas Hoare bookstore on November 15, 2006.
Currently Director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, Ontario, John English recently returned to the CIIA, of which he was president from 1990-1992, as a Board Member and a member of the newly-established Canadian International Council (CIC). The CIC is an organization dedicated to the promotion of debate and dialogue on Canada’s foreign policy and international relations and was jointly founded by the CIIA and CIGI earlier this year.
At the request of the Trudeau family, English, official biographer of former Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, embarked on the enormously difficult task of writing on a “figure of history and of recent memory”. Of the numerous titles bearing Trudeau’s name (a quick online search produced 62 titles), including Trudeau’s own Memoirs, English’s two-volume biography is noteworthy because it is written with the benefit of privileged access to Trudeau’s own private letters and papers. Taking us deep into the multiple influences that shaped the man, Volume One chronicles Trudeau’s life from his birth in 1919 to his election as leader of the Liberal Party and eventually Prime Minister of Canada in 1968.
One of the most significant insights into Trudeau’s personal life to emerge from this period is his transformation from an anti-Semitic, anti-British imperialist, nationalist (Quebec and generally) in the 1930s and ‘40s to a man who was both “communist and Catholic” as the wife of an American ambassador at the time commented. English shows that Trudeau’s education at Harvard, the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics and his personal travels through Europe, the Middle East, India and China laid the foundation for much of his foreign policy when he became Prime Minister of Canada: his antagonism towards the British Empire and his attitude to Fidel Castro.
Trudeau’s thirst to travel the world was also shaped by his deep desire to know the ‘other’. This openness to and passion for knowing the ‘other’ provides a glimpse into what may have ultimately drawn Trudeau away from his initial fervour for nationalism towards a unified and inclusive vision of Canada—a nation that includes Quebec. English noted that Trudeau’s own engagement with the CIIA is perhaps where he may have “learned [about] English Canada”. The moral of the story, asked English? “Never underestimate CIIA meetings and who you can meet.”
View the event flyer: Flyer.
Book Cover
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