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P. E. Trudeau
Pierre Trudeau believed that the life of the mind was best fed by strong engagement with life in the community. To this end, he made himself a student of the world, as an academic in Montreal, Boston, Paris, and London, as an outdoorsman and "child of nature," and as a public commentator, journalist, and activist.
The classical scope of responsibility — to one’s own person, to one’s own family, to one’s community and nation — must be broadened. Not even the biblical admonition of responsibility to all humans is sufficiently broad. The new responsibility must be more. It must extend to all space and through all time. It must be inclusive of persons far beyond our own national frontiers; it must encompass the physical planet and all its ingredients — water and air, non-renewable resources, living organisms; it must extend into the future not just for months or years, but for decades.
— Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1975
He was also an intellectual, applying learning and reason to everything from canoe-tripping to constitution-building. And he always questioned his learning and reason, whether through the exhaustion of the all-day paddle or the fire of partisan battle. At the same time, he was a man of great passion. There was a true spirit of independence at work in his analysis, and he displayed fearlessness in publishing and broadcasting the results of his inquiry.
His deepest commitment was to freedom — of the mind and of the individual — and he set himself in opposition to the political and economic forces of his day that kept men and women in bondage.
His goal was the cultivation of the engaged, inquiring and informed citizen. He sought to further the Canadian identity through education, reasoned debate and self-awareness. He also believed that a mature and confident Canada could make outstanding contributions to the wider world.
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