Trudeaumania: The Rise to Power of Pierre Elliott Trudeau Paperback – Import, 19 September 2017

Trudeau was an honourable, charismatic, super intelligent man - a rarity in today's politicians. Refreshing and nostalgic to remind us there were once great politicians who were also scholars and seekers of justice.

Great book! I bought it for my wife's birthday!

Seven years ago, I reviewed the book Mandate '68 by Martin Sullivan. It was about Pierre Elliott Trudeau's rise to power in Canada, written shortly after he won his first general election. Robert Wright covers the same territory in his book Trudeaumania and I thought it would be interesting to see the story told again, this time with the advantage of nearly fifty years of perspective. Wright challenges the idea that Trudeau simply rode a wave of popular excitement over his dashing style. Trudeau was a serious thinker who realized that Canadian national unity was the overriding issue facing Canada in 1968 and he was determined to keep the country together while looking after the rights of French Canadians, at a time when nationalism and separatism in Quebec seemed to be growing. Wright tells his story well, of Trudeau's rapid rise (elected to Parliament in 1965 and Prime Minister just three years later) and the policies he championed to improve life in Canada. We see Trudeau as the straight talker and his internal and external opponents as people who dealt in vague platitudes. One odd point is that Trudeau spoke in favor of welfare means testing and denouncing "free stuff" from the government. Although considered a man of the Left, he could sound more like Ronald Reagan than Bernie Sanders on the 1968 campaign trail. Trudeaumania is a very well-written look at the rise of the man who is arguably the most significant Canadian political figure of the second half of the twentieth century.