Pierre Trudeau

Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, PC CC CH QC FRSC (; French pronunciation: ​[tʁydo]; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), often referred to by the initials PET, was a Canadian politician who served as the 15th Prime Minister of Canada (1968–1979 and 1980–1984). He is the 3rd longest-serving Prime Minister in Canadian history (behind William Lyon Mackenzie King and John A. Macdonald), having served for 15 years, 164 days. Trudeau rose to prominence as a lawyer, intellectual, and activist in Quebec politics. In the 1960s he entered federal politics by joining the Liberal Party of Canada. He was appointed as Lester B. Pearson's Parliamentary Secretary and later became his Minister of Justice. Trudeau became a media sensation, inspiring "Trudeaumania", and took charge of the Liberals in 1968. From the late 1960s until the mid-1980s, his personality dominated the political scene to an extent never before seen in Canadian political life. Despite his personal motto, "Reason before passion", his personality and political career aroused polarizing reactions throughout Canada. Admirers praise the force of Trudeau's intellect and salute his political acumen in preserving national unity against the Quebec sovereignty movement, suppressing a terrorist crisis, fostering a pan-Canadian identity, and in achieving sweeping institutional reform, including the implementation of official bilingualism, patriation of the Constitution, and the establishment of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Critics accuse him of arrogance, of economic mismanagement, and of unduly centralizing Canadian decision-making to the detriment of Quebec's culture and the economy of the Prairie