Pierre Trudeau's death on September 28, 2000, brought about a spontaneous outpouring of national pride and mourning perhaps unprecedented for any political leader in our history. To many Canadians, he was the very embodiment of the nation. Yet, by what means can we judge a life? In a recent book two historians ranked Pierre Trudeau a paltry fifth among Canada's prime ministers. If criteria for eminence were to include vision, force of character, style or intellect, then …showed first 75 words of 947 total…

…showed last 75 words of 947 total…ralism, that could accommodate different nations within the same state? Ultimately, then, has a limitation in our greatest leader's vision prevented Canada from embracing the one solution that would accommodate the plurality of nations within Canada? Pollster Michael Adams wrote of Trudeau: "He represented the high mark of Canadian idealism, the last real coherent articulator of a Canadian vision of the country. Love him or hate him, we are all Trudeau's children."