Part of the value of Just Watch Me is its painstaking discussion of these issues that helped reshape our Canada.įrom the beginning of the book, we are treated to a partially thematic and partially narrative story of Trudeau’s first time in office, then out of office, then back in office and then finally in retirement (at least when it came to politics). His accomplishments and struggles always appeared abstract and disconnected from the Canada I grew up in. I was too young to understand his commitment to language rights in Quebec or his diplomatic manoeuvres around the neo-con policies of a simple US President Ronald Reagan and a cutthroat British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. I never witnessed his epic struggle with Rene Levesque and the separatists in the 1970s and 1980s or the decade long struggle with Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed over energy policy. I do not remember Pierre Elliot Trudeau nor any of the battles he spent the latter part of his life waging. There’s something authentic about it and perhaps that’s part of what made Trudeau such an impressive public figure. It’s hard to imagine politicians these days abstaining from the pollster’s advice, ignoring key messaging of the PR hack, and following what their instinct told them was the right thing to do. As English points out, he would do things his way, whether you liked it or not. Whatever he was, Trudeau left a personal legacy few Canadian Prime Ministers past or present can match. There’s a reason his striking features continue to leave an impression on millions of Canadians. Over a decade after his death and 25 years after he ended his public life, Trudeau’s signature style still endears him in the minds of many boomers whom he touched, either in person or through the media. There was just something about him, she remarked. Pressed, she couldn’t give a particularly good reason for her commendation.

He was a great man, she concluded, just a great man. Long ago Trudeau had visited her university in Southern Ontario and wowed the college students, including my new elevator friend, with his noteworthy charisma and intellectualism. I showed her the cover and immediately her face lit up.

An older woman in her mid-fifties stood beside me and noticed my 787 page tome. I’d just come back from a lunch time reading of John English’s recent Trudeau biography, Just Watch Me. Several weeks ago, I found myself standing in a non-descript office building on Robson Street in Vancouver. John English, Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau: 1968-2000 (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2010) trade paperback, 832 pp.

Citizen of the World by John English