Pierre Elliott Trudeau Read online

  1975 Trudeau introduces wage and price controls to fight inflation after having ridiculed a similar Conservative proposal.

  1976 The election of René Lévesque’s Parti Québécois raises the spectre of Quebec independence.

  1977 Margaret Trudeau’s night with the Rolling Stones in Toronto makes international headlines.

  1979 Trudeau announces his retirement after Joe Clark’s Progressive Conservatives form a minority government, then agrees to return as Liberal leader when the Conservatives bungle a confidence vote.

  1980 Trudeau wins another majority, though with no seats west of Manitoba. In May, his promise to Quebecers to renew federalism helps defeat a referendum on sovereignty.

  1981 The federal government signs the “Kitchen Accord” with all the provinces except Quebec.

  1982 Canada patriates its constitution under the Constitution Act, entrenching within it the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

  1984 Trudeau resigns for the second time. In a September election, the Liberals, under John Turner, suffer the worst defeat in their history, capturing only 40 seats to the 211 of Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives.

  1985 Parti Québécois leader René Lévesque resigns. Lévesque will die of a heart attack in 1987.

  1987 Brian Mulroney and the ten provincial premiers negotiate the Meech Lake Accord. Trudeau publicly denounces the accord.

  1990 The Meech Lake Accord dies after Premier Clyde Wells refuses to put it to a vote in the Newfoundland legislature.

  1991 Canadian constitutional lawyer Deborah Coyne gives birth to a daughter by Trudeau, Sarah Elisabeth.

  1992 Trudeau speaks out against the Charlottetown Accord, which is subsequently defeated in a national referendum.

  1998 Margaret and Pierre’s twenty-three-year-old son Michel dies while skiing in the B.C. Rockies.

  2000 Trudeau dies on September 28, after battling Parkinson’s disease and prostate cancer.