In Good Company – Pierre Elliot Trudeau

Any Canadian who asks who is(was) Pierre Elliot Trudeau should have their Canadian citizenship revoked faster then if they said "what exactly is a double double". But being as my log files say that not everyone who reads this blog is a Canadian citizen, and in fact the majority are Americans I will be nice and give a quick explanation of who Pierre Elliot Trudeau was.

Pierre Elliot Trudeau was a politician, not just any politician mind you, he was THE politician of his era. P.E.T., as he is commonly known as, is the only politician I can think of that had actual groupies, Clinton perhaps could rival him, but P.E.T. was Canadian, so automatically better. P.E.T. was a legend in world politics, mention his name in Canada and you will get a range of reactions from vehement hatred, to absolute adoration. Love him or hate him though, there is no denying he was one of the most charismatic and wacky prime ministers in Canadian history, and considering the ranks of PM’s through the ages that is quite an accomplishment.

The stories of P.E.T.’s time in office are plentiful, ranging from the famed pirouette behind the Queen’s back to the possibly urban legend of P.E.T. sparking up a joint in the White House (source) . During the FQL crisis P.E.T. invoked martial law on Quebec, and flipped protestors the finger.

Pierre Elliot Trudeau earns a place on the In Good Company list for several reasons; he was outspoken about marijuana needing to be legalized; his legendary (and possibly fictional) smoking up in the White House; his exwife admitting publicly to using marijuana frequently while P.E.T. held office; and the fact that in 1969 P.E.T. established a commission to look into marijuana and that commission in 1973 concluded that marijuana was illegal "without any apparent scientific basis nor any real sense of social urgency." (source)

On September 28th 2000 Pierre Elliot Trudeau passed away after a long battle with prostate cancer. So famed was he that his funeral resembled that of a royalty, and the Trudeau’s will always remain Canada’s royalty, or at least the closest thing we have to royalty.