Pierre Trudeau

Oh, for Christ's sake shut up. Obviously the New Democratic Party is not only misinformed but uninterested in the subject.

Comment in the House of Commons in response to an MP heckling his response in Question Period, House of Commons Debates - Official Report - Second Session - Thirtienth Parliament - Volume V, 1977 - Page 5272 (4 May 1977), 1977

I don't really know what a cyclotron is but I am certainly very happy Canada has one!

Visiting the TRIUMF cyclotron in (February 1976), as quoted in "A Canadian TRIUMF" in Grad Gazzette [University of British Columbia] (June 2005), 1976

If Canada is to survive, it can only survive in mutual respect and in love for one another.

Televised address (1976-11-24), 1976

The next time you see Jesus Christ, ask Him what happened to the just society He promised 2,000 years ago.

In reply to a high school student's question about what happened to Trudeau's promises of a "Just Society", in Regina, Saskatchewan (September 1972), 1972

There is no such thing as a model or ideal Canadian. What could be more absurd than the concept of an "all Canadian" boy or girl? A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate.

Speech to the Ukrainian - Canadian Congress, Winnipeg, Manitoba (9 October 1971), 1971

Let us overthrow the totems, break the taboos. Or better, let us consider them cancelled. Coldly, let us be intelligent.

Approaches to Politics (1970), 1970

The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshipped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.

Statement of 1970, as quoted in profile at the Canadian Museum of Civilizations, also quoted in York University: The Way Must Be Tried (2008) by Michiel Horn, p. 4, 1970

Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt.

Être votre voisin, c'est comme dormir avec un éléphant; quelque douce et placide que soit la bête, on subit chacun de ses mouvements et de ses grognements., 1969

If you want to see me again, don't bring signs saying "Trudeau is a pig" and don't bring signs that he hustles women, because I won't talk to you. I didn't get into politics to be insulted. And don't throw wheat at me either. If you don't stop that, I'll kick you right in the ass.

Comment to a young protester throwing wheat at him during a speech in Regina, (17 July 1969), in The Best of Trudeau (1972), 1969

Liberalism is the philosophy for our time, because it does not try to conserve every tradition of the past, because it does not apply to new problems the old doctrinaire solutions, because it is prepared to experiment and innovate and because it knows that the past is less important than the future.

Defining liberalism at the 1968 Liberal leadership convention, as quoted in "History of the Liberal Party of Canada" (PDF at the Liberal Party website), 1968

Well, I am trying to put Quebec in its place — and the place of Quebec is in Canada, nowhere else.

Speech on the Quebec separatist movement (25 June 1968), exact quote take from footage as seen in "Pierre Elliott Trudeau Memoirs" (27 Jan 2009), Disk 2, 24:05; only the bolded portion has usually been quoted in print, as quoted in Winnipeg Free Press (25 June 1968), and in "Flamboyant former Canadian leader Pierre Trudeau dies" at CNN (28 September 2000), 1968

Of course a bilingual state is more expensive than a unilingual one — but it is a richer state.

Remark in 1968, quoted in Improving Canada's Democracy (2006) by Terry Julian, p. 14, 1968

There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.

L'État n'a pas d'affaires dans les chambres à coucher de la nation., 1967

Bilingualism is not an imposition on the citizens. The citizens can go on speaking one language or six languages, or no languages if they so choose. Bilingualism is an imposition on the state and not the citizens.

Statement to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, as quoted in Problems of Journalism (1966) by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, 1966

What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.

"Exhaustion and Fulfillment : The Ascetic in a Canoe" (1944), 1944