Max and Monique Nemni, Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919-1944

Abstract

For most Canadians, Pierre Elliott Trudeau looms large as a central figure in later twentieth century Canadian history. Yet portions of Trudeau’s life have received much more attention than others. In contrast to his political career on which there seems to be no end of the making of books, his early development as a child and an adolescent has been largely neglected. And although Trudeau continues to command our attention, the most common question remains: “Who was Pierre Elliott Trudeau?” Even though multiple authors have addressed this question, few have successfully defined the younger Trudeau’s larger place in Canadian history as John English. 1 Max and Monique Nemni further contribute to the focus on who Trudeau was by looking at his youth from the viewpoint of an intellectual biography. The subject of theNemnisstudy is the young Trudeau, the model Brebeuf student, the conformist, and the defender of an ethnic and organic Quebec nationalism. This Trudeau, the authors suggest, was far from being the young rebel against authority that past biographers assert. The theme of Trudeau the outsider, the rootless individual who enjoyed irritating the other students and his teachers