Pierre Trudeau Quotes (53 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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Famous Pierre Trudeau Quotes

“I remember thinking that walking on the beach as a free man is pretty desirable.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 3, 1974 - 1979 Victory And Defeat, p. 258
Memoirs (1993)

“A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.”

Pierre Trudeau

Speech to the Ukrainian - Canadian Congress, Winnipeg, Manitoba (9 October 1971)
Context: There is no such thing as a model or ideal Canadian. What could be more absurd than the concept of an "all Canadian" boy or girl? A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.

“I, for one, will be convinced that the Canada we know and love will be gone forever. But, then, Thucydides wrote that Themistocles' greatness lay in the fact that he realized Athens was not immortal. I think we have to realize that Canada is not immortal; but, if it is going to go, let it go with a bang rather than a whimper.”

Pierre Trudeau

Testifying before the Canadian Senate in opposition to the Meech Lake Accord (1988-03-30)

“If I can be permitted to turn around a phrase, I would say that I'm kind of sorry I won't have you to kick around any more.”

Pierre Trudeau

Statement to the press, referencing "You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more", during his resignation speech (21 November 1979) http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/1979-trudeau-steps-down-as-liberal-leader

“Harvard was an extraordinary window on the world.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 1, 1919 - 1968 The Road to 24 Sussex Drive, p. 39
Memoirs (1993)

“Democracy demands that elected members be able to realize fully the role for which they have been chosen.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 2, 1968 - 1974 Power And Responsibility, p. 117
Memoirs (1993)

Pierre Trudeau Quotes about people

“Trudeau: Well there are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don't like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed. But it's more important to keep law and order in the society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don't like the looks of a soldier—
CBC reporter Tim Ralfe [interrupting]: At any cost? How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?
Trudeau: Well, just watch me.”

Pierre Trudeau

Responses to reporters following the kidnapping by the FLQ of a provincial cabinet minister who was eventually murdered. CBC video archives http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-71-162-429-21/unforgettable_moments/conflict_war/trudeau_just_watch_me (13 October 1970)

“People are more interested in ideas than dress.”

Pierre Trudeau

As quoted in "Pierre Elliott Trudeau" profile in The Greatest Canadian at CBC

“I've been called worse things by better people.”

Pierre Trudeau

When it was reported to him that President Richard Nixon had called him an "asshole" (1971), quoted in Absurdities, Scandals & Stupidities in Politics (2006) by Hakeem Shittu and Callie Query, p. 19
My only response was that I had been called worse things by better people.
Trudeau's account of the comment, in Memoirs (1993) by Pierre Elliott Trudeau, p. 218

“Mr. Lévesque was saying that part of my name was Elliott and since Elliot was an English name, it was perfectly understandable that I was for the No side, because, really, you see, I was not as much of a Quebecer as those who are going to vote Yes. That, my dear friends, is what contempt is…. It means saying that the Quebecers on the No side are not as good Quebecers as the others and perhaps they have a drop or two of foreign blood, while the people on the Yes side have pure blood in their veins.… Of course my name is Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Yes, Elliott was my mother's name. It was the name borne by the Elliotts who came to Canada more than 200 years ago. It is the name of the Elliotts who, more than 100 years ago, settled in Saint-Gabriel de Brandon, where you can still see their graves in the cemetery. That is what the Elliotts are. My name is a Quebec name — but my name is a Canadian name also.”

Pierre Trudeau

Speech in Paul Sauvé Arena, Montreal, Quebec, six days before the Quebec referendum on independence. (14 May 1980)

“Our hopes are high. Our faith in the people is great. Our courage is strong. And our dreams for this beautiful country will never die.”

Pierre Trudeau

Farewell speech to the Liberal Party http://www.primeministers.ca/trudeau/bio_9.php?context=b (14 June 1984)

Pierre Trudeau Quotes about time

“I was too busy doing my job and living my life to spend time keeping notes for some future volume of memoirs.”

Pierre Trudeau

Preface, p. ix
Memoirs (1993)

“Liberalism is the philosophy for our time, because it does not try to conserve every tradition of the past, because it does not apply to new problems the old doctrinaire solutions, because it is prepared to experiment and innovate and because it knows that the past is less important than the future.”

Pierre Trudeau

Defining liberalism at the 1968 Liberal leadership convention, as quoted in "History of the Liberal Party of Canada" (PDF at the Liberal Party website) http://web.archive.org/web/20070418135603/http://www.liberal.ca/pdf/docs/070417_lpc_history_en.pdf

“The essential ingredient of politics is timing.”

Pierre Trudeau

As quoted in The Rainmaker : A Passion for Politics (1986) by Keith Davey, p. 57; also in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations (1998) by Connie Robertson, p. 439

“The next time you see Jesus Christ, ask Him what happened to the just society He promised 2,000 years ago.”

Pierre Trudeau

In reply to a high school student's question about what happened to Trudeau's promises of a "Just Society", in Regina, Saskatchewan (September 1972)[citation needed]

Pierre Trudeau: Trending quotes

“Some things I never learned to like. I didn't like to kiss babies, though I didn't mind kissing their mothers.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 3, 1974 - 1979 Victory And Defeat, p. 178
Memoirs (1993)
Context: Some things I never learned to like. I didn't like to kiss babies, though I didn't mind kissing their mothers. I didn't like to slap backs or other parts of the anatomy. I liked hecklers, because they brought my speeches alive. I liked supporters, because they looked happy. And I really enjoyed mingling with people, if there wasn't too much of it.

Kiss , Learning , Baby

“Criminal law therefore cannot be based on the notion of sin; it is crimes that it must define.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 1, 1919 - 1968 The Road to 24 Sussex Drive, p. 83
Memoirs (1993)
Context: What is considered sinful in one of the great religions to which citizens belong isn't necessarily sinful in the others. Criminal law therefore cannot be based on the notion of sin; it is crimes that it must define.

Law

“A man who tries to please all men by weakening his position or compromising his beliefs, in the end has neither position nor beliefs.”

Pierre Trudeau

A man must say what he believes clearly, without dogma, and without guile.
Statement during the 1968 election campaign, as quoted in party literature. "Pierre Elliott Trudeau for Canada", 1968 leaflet http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau-for-Canada-1968-Leaflet-Bill-Vander-Zalm-Liberal-Party-BC/322004097304?_trksid=p2045573.c100033.m2042&_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20131017132637%26meid%3D9020a37aa0b24dd68f1d3f5025b50b52%26pid%3D100033%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D4%26sd%3D381542319016

Men

Pierre Trudeau Quotes

“The attainment of a just society is the cherished hope of civilized men.”

Pierre Trudeau

Speech from the Throne, House of Commons (12 September 1968)
Context: The attainment of a just society is the cherished hope of civilized men. While perhaps more difficult to formulate for groups than for individuals, even the members of majorities — political, religious, linguistic or economic — must know what it is to suffer injustice. My Government is deeply concerned to provide and to ensure increased justice, dignity and recognition to the individual, particularly in an age which is characterized by large governments, industrial automation, social regimentation and old-fashioned laws. A great deal has been accomplished in recent years to make the Canadian society more just in terms of income distribution and security against the vicissitudes of life.

Men , Hope

“A country is something that is built every day out of certain basic shared values.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 5, Life After Politics, p. 366
Memoirs (1993)
Context: A country, after all, is not something you build as the pharaohs built the pyramids, and then leave standing there to defy eternity. A country is something that is built every day out of certain basic shared values.

Country

“The Jesuits were good educators, exceptional teachers.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 1, 1919 - 1968 The Road to 24 Sussex Drive, p. 21
Memoirs (1993)
Context: The Jesuits were good educators, exceptional teachers. In an era and in a society where freedom of speech was not held in high regard, of course, that the discourse be focused on what they were teaching, but we were able to go beyond this framework without incurring too great a risk.

Education , Teachers

“Bilingualism is not an imposition on the citizens. The citizens can go on speaking one language or six languages, or no languages if they so choose. Bilingualism is an imposition on the state and not the citizens.”

Pierre Trudeau

Statement to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, as quoted in Problems of Journalism (1966) by the American Society of Newspaper Editors
Unsourced variant : "Bilingualism is not an imposition on the citizens — it is an imposition on the state."
Variant: Bilingualism is an imposition on the state and not the citizens.

“We must now establish the basic principles, the basic values and beliefs which hold us together as Canadians so that beyond our regional loyalties there is a way of life and a system of values which make us proud of the country that has given us such freedom and such immeasurable joy.”

Pierre Trudeau

This quote from 1981 appears on the poster of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1981)[citation needed]

Life , Way , Freedom , Joy

“I had been struck by the amateurism that reigned in the upper echelons of the federal government.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 2, 1968 - 1974 Power And Responsibility, p. 107
Memoirs (1993)
Context: When I had been appointed to the Cabinet in 1967, I had been struck by the amateurism that reigned in the upper echelons of the federal government.

“I am trying to put Quebec in its place — and the place of Quebec is in Canada”

Pierre Trudeau

Speech on the Quebec separatist movement (25 June 1968), exact quote take from footage as seen in "Pierre Elliott Trudeau Memoirs" (27 Jan 2009), Disk 2, 24:05; only the bolded portion has usually been quoted in print, as quoted in Winnipeg Free Press (25 June 1968), and in "Flamboyant former Canadian leader Pierre Trudeau dies" at CNN (28 September 2000) https://listserv.utoronto.ca/cgi-bin/wa?A2=parkinsn;RzFzCg;20000929032301%2B0200d
Context: Well, I am trying to put Quebec in its place — and the place of Quebec is in Canada, nowhere else.

“What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other.”

Pierre Trudeau

"Exhaustion and Fulfillment : The Ascetic in a Canoe" (1944) http://www.canoe.ca/che-mun/102trudeau.html 
Context: What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.

“I would have to point out in the strongest terms the autocracy of the Liberal structure and the cowardice of its members. I have never seen in all my examination of politics so degrading a spectacle as that of all these Liberals turning their coats in unison with their Chief, when they saw the chance to take power.”

Pierre Trudeau

As a CCF member taking issue with the federal Liberal Party. Cite libre (April 1963)

Chance

“I don't know if the member of Prince Edward-Hastings thinks he's on camera, but he's not.”

Pierre Trudeau

Comment in the House of Commons in response to the heckling of George Hees, October 17, 1977 (this particular Question Period was the first to be televised, prompting Trudeau's remark. In actuality, John Raymond Ellis was the Prince Edward-Hastings MP.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2kRv0kW5Oc#t=6m51s

Thinking

“If Canada is to survive, it can only survive in mutual respect and in love for one another.”

Pierre Trudeau

Televised address (1976-11-24)

Love

“There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.”

Pierre Trudeau

L'État n'a pas d'affaires dans les chambres à coucher de la nation.
Comment in the Canadian House of Commons on the decriminalization of homosexuality (22 December 1967)[citation needed]
Although usually attributed solely to Trudeau, the quote is a paraphrase by him from an editorial that appeared in the Globe and Mail on December 12, 1967 (page 61) which read in part: "Obviously, the state's responsibility should be to legislate rules for a well-ordered society. It has no right or duty to creep into the bedrooms of the nation."

“The state has an active role to play in ensuring that there is equilibrium between the constituent parts of the economy, the consumers and the producers.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 3, 1974 - 1979 Victory And Defeat, p. 189
Memoirs (1993)

Parting

“I must say that "Give Peace a Chance" has always seemed to me to be sensible advice.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 2, 1968 - 1974 Power And Responsibility, p. 122
Memoirs (1993)

Peace , Chance

“I believe a constitution can permit the co-existence of several cultures and ethnic groups with a single state.”

Pierre Trudeau

As quoted in Prime Ministers (2000) by Rennay Craats

“I saw the charter as an expression of my long-held view that the subject of law must be the individual human being; the law must permit the individual to fulfil himself or herself to the utmost.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 4, 1979 - 1984 "Welcome to the 1980's", p. 322
Memoirs (1993)

Law

“What is wonderful about a university like LSE is that you not only receive teaching of very high quality, you also learn where to find the knowledge you are seeking. And you make unexpected discoveries; it was a Marxist professor who introduced me to the work of Cardinal Newman, a great master of English prose as well as theology.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 1, 1919 - 1968 The Road to 24 Sussex Drive, p. 46
Memoirs (1993)

Knowledge , Learning , Universe

“I never actually got around to taping conversations with my guests, but there are a lot of things you can learn from a man like Nixon.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 3, 1974 - 1979 Victory And Defeat, p. 216
Memoirs (1993)

Learning

“Oh, for Christ's sake shut up. Obviously the New Democratic Party is not only misinformed but uninterested in the subject.”

Pierre Trudeau

Comment in the House of Commons in response to an MP heckling his response in Question Period, House of Commons Debates - Official Report - Second Session - Thirtienth Parliament - Volume V, 1977 - Page 5272 (4 May 1977)

Christ

“I walked until midnight in the storm, then I went home and took a sauna for an hour and a half. It was all clear. I listened to my heart and saw if there were any signs of my destiny in the sky, and there were none — there were just snowflakes.”

Pierre Trudeau

Recounting a "walk in the snow" at a news conference announcing his resignation (29 February 1984)[citation needed]

Home , Heart

“Of course a bilingual state is more expensive than a unilingual one — but it is a richer state.”

Pierre Trudeau

Remark in 1968, quoted in Improving Canada's Democracy (2006) by Terry Julian, p. 14

“Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”

Pierre Trudeau

Être votre voisin, c'est comme dormir avec un éléphant; quelque douce et placide que soit la bête, on subit chacun de ses mouvements et de ses grognements.
Addressing the Press Club in Washington, D.C. (25 March 1969) - Audio clip https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trudeau_sleeping_with_an_elephant.ogg

Way , Sleep

“I don't really know what a cyclotron is but I am certainly very happy Canada has one!”

Pierre Trudeau

Visiting the TRIUMF cyclotron in (February 1976), as quoted in "A Canadian TRIUMF" http://www.alumni.ubc.ca/grad_gazette/grad_gazette_june_2005.html in Grad Gazzette [University of British Columbia] (June 2005)

Happiness

“I am sometimes also asked whether the October Crisis taught me anything about the art of governing, or about the means that were at my disposal for defusing the crisis. First of all, it taught me that you can be the prescient futurologist in the world, you can lay out the best-made plans and define your priorities with the utmost care, but if you show yourself to be incapable of managing a crisis when it arises, you will lose your right to govern and the whole thing will blow up in your face.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 2, 1968 - 1974 Power And Responsibility, p. 149-150
Memoirs (1993)

World , Art

“We aimed far and high, but we did not miss the mark.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 4, 1979 - 1984 "Welcome to the 1980's", p. 340
Memoirs (1993)

“Let us overthrow the totems, break the taboos. Or better, let us consider them cancelled. Coldly, let us be intelligent.”

Pierre Trudeau

Approaches to Politics (1970)

Intelligence

“Canada regards herself as responsible to all mankind for the peculiar ecological balance that now exists so precariously in the water, ice and land areas of the Arctic archipelago. We do not doubt for a moment that the rest of the world would find us at fault, and hold us liable, should we fail to ensure adequate protection of that environment from pollution or artificial deterioration.”

Pierre Trudeau

House of Commons Debate (24 October 1969)

World , Water

“As against the "invisible hand" of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 3, 1974 - 1979 Victory And Defeat, p. 190
Memoirs (1993)

“Paddling a canoe is a source of enrichment and inner renewal.”

Pierre Trudeau

As quoted in "Pierre Elliott Trudeau" profile in The Greatest Canadian at CBC http://web.archive.org/web/20041029152936/http://www.cbc.ca/greatest/top_ten/nominee/trudeau-pierre-know.html

“The federal government is the balance wheel of the federal system, and the federal system means using counterweights.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 4, 1979 - 1984 "Welcome to the 1980's", p. 290
Memoirs (1993)

“I'm not leaving! I must stay.”

Pierre Trudeau

On the reviewing stand of a St. Jean Baptiste Day parade in Montreal, after being subjected to objects being thrown by demonstrators. (24 June 1968)[citation needed]

“We peer so suspiciously at each other that we cannot see that we Canadians are standing on the mountaintop of human wealth, freedom and privilege.”

Pierre Trudeau

Speech (13 December 1980), quoted in It's great up north" by Henry Porter in The Observer (20 November 2005) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/nov/20/usa

Freedom , Wealth

“The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshipped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.”

Pierre Trudeau

Statement of 1970, as quoted in profile at the Canadian Museum of Civilizations http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/biography/biographi270e.shtml, also quoted in York University: The Way Must Be Tried (2008) by Michiel Horn, p. 4

Past , Future

“The community of man should be treated in the same way you would treat your community of brothers or fellow citizens.”

Pierre Trudeau

Part 3, 1974 - 1979 Victory And Defeat, p. 224
Memoirs (1993)

Way , Communication

“Long live free France.”

Pierre Trudeau

Comment referring to the 1968 student protests in Paris, patterned after the 1967 remarks of Charles de Gaulle in Montreal on Quebec independence from Canada: "Vive le Québec libre!" (Long live free Quebec!), quoted in The Lima News (11 December 1968)