Pierre Trudeau: Trending quotes (page 3)

“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 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

Time

“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)

“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]

Time , Christ

“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

“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)

People , Faith , Beauty , Dreams

“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

Problem , Time , Past , Future

“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)

People , Understanding , Parting

“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

People

“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)