Just Watch Me
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Many of Trudeau’s colleagues have written or are writing their own accounts of the period, and I have benefited from discussions with them. Again my bibliography, available online, provides a full list, but I must mention several works here because of their particular significance. Alastair Gillespie, a senior Trudeau minister in the seventies, has the best-organized papers on the period. I have been assisted greatly by full access to these documents and by the generous collaboration of Irene Sage, Gillespie’s co-author and my former assistant and close friend. Paul Litt, who is writing a major biography of John Turner, allowed me to read his manuscript, and it has been extremely important in helping me to understand the period and the Turner-Trudeau relationship. Allan MacEachen has been working on his memoirs, and two of my former doctoral students (now colleagues at the University of Waterloo), Andrew Thompson and Ryan Touhey, worked on his papers—to both their and my benefit. Another former student, Greg Donaghy, now head of the historical division of the Department of Foreign Affairs, has been extremely helpful as always, particularly in giving me his own fine essay on Trudeau’s peace initiative. Dick Stanbury gave me a copy of his invaluable diary and participated in a “collective interview” with nine former ministers in Toronto. Library and Archives Canada, under the inspired leadership of Ian Wilson, collaborated with me in four more interviews of this type, and all of these meetings, through the active participation of Trudeau’s ministers, senior assistants, and office staff, provided exceptionally valuable material on Trudeau.
Robert Bothwell, the leading historian of Canadian foreign policy and a friend since the day four decades ago when we met and discovered that we both intended to write a doctoral thesis on the same subject, appears regularly in the notes to this book and, even more frequently, as an influence on my assessment of events. We have shared research notes and interview records over the years, and they assisted me in my work. I also owe thanks to several others who have given me information: Don Avery, Jack Granatstein, Norman Hillmer, Stephen Azzi, Donald Wright, Joan Euler, and the late Geoffrey Pearson.
When I began this project, my good friend and distinguished diplomat Geoffrey Pearson, who was not an admirer of Trudeau, advised me not to “touch it.” Whether I was wise to ignore his advice is for readers to decide, but the experience of writing these two volumes has been made much more rewarding because of the splendid people who have worked closely with me during the last seven years. My principal assistant has been Jonathan Minnes, who, while a history student at Wilfrid Laurier University, has checked my notes, corrected proofs, visited archives, and helped out with hundreds of small tasks. Nicolas Rouleau, an exceptional young man who is now in India, assisted with research and, more recently, with translation. Others who have worked on the project include Eleni Crespi, Ian Haight, Sean House, Alexis Landry, Alex Lund, Brodie Ross, and, indirectly, students in my graduate course who focused on the Trudeau period.
Finally, I, like so many other Canadian authors, owe an enormous debt to my publisher, Louise Dennys, whose emails at 2:30 a.m. remind me not only of her diligent ways but also of her great commitment to the project. Rosemary Shipton, the best historical editor in Canada, who regularly turns dross into elegant prose and insightful observation, has edited both volumes. They are so much better because her incomparable editorial skills touched the manuscript firmly. My agent, Linda McKnight, is always a reservoir of common sense and knowledge about Canadian publishing. I must confess that I came to enjoy missing a deadline because it would occasion a meeting that brought together these brilliant but kind women, who rebuked me gently, entertained me with stories, and sent me back to the manuscript with a renewed energy. Kathryn Dean has been a superb copyeditor; Gena Gorrell—excellent in all matters editorial—was in this case our reliable proofreader; and Professor Barney Gilmore proved himself again the finest of indexers. And at Knopf Canada a team of talented editorial and production specialists has turned the manuscript into a book: Deirdre Molina, the Senior Managing Editor who somehow keeps projects on schedule with a firm but courteous hand; Michelle MacAleese, who diligently and intelligently tracked down and obtained the illustrations and permissions; Zoë Bercovici, who assisted her most ably; Amanda Lewis, who conscientiously and skillfully entered the final corrections; Carla Kean, who calmly met all the deadlines through the production process; and Nina Ber-Donkor, Louise’s Executive Assistant, who was always helpful. Just Watch Me is the fourth book I’ve published with Louise Dennys’s team, and I can’t imagine a better publishing experience.
John English
Kitchener, Ontario
June 2009
PERMISSIONS
PERMISSIONS
The author has made every effort to locate and contact all the holders of copy written material reproduced in this book, and expresses grateful acknowledgment for permission to reproduce from the following previously published material:
Gossage, Patrick. Close to the Charisma: My Years between the Press and Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Halifax: Goodread Biographies), 1987.
Griffiths, Linda and Paul Thompson. Maggie and Pierre: A Fantasy of Love, Politics and the Media (Vancouver: Talon Books), 1980.
Head, Ivan L and Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The Canadian Way: Shaping Canada’s Foreign Policy, 1968–1984 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart), 1995.
The Estate of Eli Mandel
Mandel, Eli. “Political Speech (for PET),” Dreaming backwards, 1954–1981: The selected poetry of Eli Mandel (Toronto: General Publishing Co.), 1981
Morin, Claude. Quebec versus Ottawa: The Struggle for Self-Government 1960–1972 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 1976.
McWhinney, Edward. Canada and the Constitution 1979–1982: Partriation and the Charter of Rights (Toronto: University of Toronto Press), 1982.
Ritchie, Charles. Storm Signals More Undiplomatic Diaries, 1962–1971 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart), 2001.
The Estate of Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Trudeau, Pierre. Memoirs (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart), 1993.
JOHN ENGLISH is the author of the award-winning two-volume biography Lester Pearson: Shadow of Heaven: 1897–1948, and The Worldly Years: 1949–1972, described as “a magnificent biography” (The Globe and Mail), “outstanding” (Ottawa Citizen), and “a multi-dimensional portrait that rings true from beginning to end” (The Gazette). Citizen of the World, the first volume of English’s biography of Pierre Trudeau, was a multi-award winner and a Globe and Mail Best Book. A professor of history at the University of Waterloo, executive director of the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and General Editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, English served as co-editor of the Canadian Historical Review, chair of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and Member of Parliament for Kitchener, where he lives.
PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF CANADA
Copyright © 2009 John English
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published in 2009 by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited.
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LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
English, John, 1945–
Citizen of the world : the life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau / John English.
—1st ed.
Vol. 2 has title: Just watch me : the life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968–2000.
eISBN: 978-0-307-37298-7
1. Trudeau, Pierre Elliott, 1919–2000. 2. Canada—Politics and government—1968–1979. 3. Canada—Politics and government—1980–1984. 4. Prime ministers—Canada—Biography. I. Title. II. Title: Just watch me.
FC626.T7E53 2006 971.064′4092 C2006-902597-5
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