Pierre Elliott Trudeau Memoirs

Pierre Elliott Trudeau was one of the most striking, well-spoken and controversial leaders in Canadian history. He brought with him an almost rock-star aura of popularity to office in the 1960s, marking what was known as "Trudeaumania" in Canada during one of the country's most exciting and important times. Yet Trudeau's eccentricities were regularly mistaken for arrogance and he was often considered a traitor, particularly by those who wanted to see Quebec separated from the rest of Canada. With the province rocked by terrorist bombings and the nation disturbed by civil unrest, Trudeau was determined to "put the country in its place." Through hours of archival footage and interviews with Trudeau himself, Memoirs details the story of a man who used intelligence and charisma to bring together a country that was very nearly torn apart.

This three-hour prequel to the 2002 miniseries, "Trudeau", chronicles the coming of age of Canada's 15th Prime Minister and the forces that shaped his brilliant mind and fierce political will. Fatherless at 14, a thorn in the side of his Jesuit professors, the young Pierre Elliott Trudeau chafed under the suffocating pressures of the very conservative Quebec of the '30s and '40s. Iconoclast, gadfly, a restless traveler and ladies' man, he helped plant the seeds for Quebec's Quiet Revolution by challenging all of its sacred cows—including the Catholic Church and the autocratic premier of Quebec, Maurice Duplessis.