UBB.classic™ 6.7.2
Today we buried a former Prime Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, a statesman, and a true Canadian.
This is his eulogy, delivered by his son, Justin.
"Friends, Romans, countrymen . . .
I was about six years old when I went on my first official trip. I was going with my father and my grandpa Sinclair up to the North Pole.
It was a very glamorous destination. But the best thing about it is that I was going to be spending lots of time with my dad because in Ottawa he just worked so hard.
One day, we were in Alert, Canada's northernmost point, a scientific military installation that seemed to consist entirely of low shed-like buildings and warehouses.
Let's be honest. I was six. There were no brothers around to play with and I was getting a little bored because dad still somehow had a lot of work to do.
I remember a frozen, windswept Arctic afternoon when I was bundled up into a Jeep and hustled out on a special top-secret mission. I figured I was finally going to be let in on the reason of this high-security Arctic base.
I was exactly right.
We drove slowly through and past the buildings, all of them very grey and windy. We rounded a corner and came upon a red one. We stopped. I got out of the Jeep and started to crunch across towards the front door. I was told, no, to the window.
So I clambored over the snowbank, was boosted up to the window, rubbed my sleeve against the frosty glass to see inside and as my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I saw a figure, hunched over one of many worktables that seemed very cluttered. He was wearing a red suit with that furry white trim.
And that's when I understood just how powerful and wonderful my father was.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The very words convey so many things to so many people. Statesman, intellectual, professor, adversary, outdoorsman, lawyer, journalist, author, prime minister.
But more than anything, to me, he was dad.
And what a dad. He loved us with the passion and the devotion that encompassed his life. He taught us to believe in ourselves, to stand up for ourselves, to know ourselves and to accept responsibility for ourselves.
We knew we were the luckiest kids in the world. And we had done nothing to actually deserve it.
It was instead something that we would have to spend the rest of our lives to work very hard to live up to.
He gave us a lot of tools. We were taught to take nothing for granted. He doted on us but didn't indulge.
Many people say he didn't suffer fools gladly, but I'll have you know he had infinite patience with us.
He encouraged us to push ourselves, to test limits, to challenge anyone and anything.
There were certain basic principles that could never be compromised.
As I guess it is for most kids, in Grade 3, it was always a real treat to visit my dad at work.
As on previous visits this particular occasion included a lunch at the parliamentary restaurant which always seemed to be terribly important and full of serious people that I didn't recognize.
But at eight, I was becoming politically aware. And I recognized one whom I knew to be one of my father's chief rivals.
Thinking of pleasing my father, I told a joke about him -- a generic, silly little grade school thing.
My father looked at me sternly with that look I would learn to know so well, and said: `Justin, Never attack the individual. We can be in total disagreement with someone without denigrating them as a consequence.'
Saying that, he stood up and took me by the hand and brought me over to introduce me to this man. He was a nice man who was eating there with his daughter, a nice-looking blond girl a little younger than I was.
He spoke to me in a friendly manner for a bit and it was at that point that I understood that having opinions that are different from those of another does not preclude one being deserving of respect as an individual.
This simple tolerance and (recognition of) the real and profound dimensions of each human being, regardless of beliefs, origins, or values — that's what he expected of his children and that's what he expected of our country.
He demanded this with love, love of his sons, love of his country, and it's for this that we so love the letters, the flowers, the dignity of the crowds, and we say to him, farewell.
All that to thank him for having loved us so much.
My father's fundamental belief never came from a textbook. It stemmed from his deep love for and faith in all Canadians and over the past few days, with every card, every rose, every tear, every wave and every pirouette, you returned his love.
It means the world to Sacha and me.
Thank you.
We have gathered from coast to coast to coast, from one ocean to another, united in our grief, to say goodbye.
But this is not the end. He left politics in '84. But he came back for Meech. He came back for Charlottetown. He came back to remind us of who we are and what we're all capable of.
But he won't be coming back anymore. It's all up to us, all of us, now.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep. He has kept his promises and earned his sleep.
Je t'aime Papa."
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Dennis Veenema
The Sign Shop
Dresden, Ont.
&
GigaBytes Plus
"Where the plus is the service!"
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Deborah Fowler
Creative Signs, Ohio
"Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day: Teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime."
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"Keep Positive"
SIGNS1st.
Neil Butler
Paradise, NF
Great post buddy.
****
Neil,
You're right. This is the first I've heard it. I wish the media would do a better job of informing the public, not on just this, but on everything.
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Glenn
[This message has been edited by Glenn Taylor (edited October 04, 2000).]
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Terry Whynott
Creative Edge Signs and Graphics
Kitchener, Ontario
terry@vehiclelettering.com
www.vehiclelettering.com
Thank you for that insight into a man I didn't know much about. I'd like to know more now.
Mark Jordan
Houston, Texas
misgn205@aol.com
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Joey Madden the Pinstriper, Designer and Manufacturer of Killerkoncepts......
http://www.killerkoncepts.com
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Dennis Goddard
Excalibur Signs & Graphics
Tampa Fl
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LazyEdna
in RL known as Sara Straw
from southern Utah
5 National Parks within 3 hours drive
Red Rock Heaven
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Bob Darnell
London, Ontario, Canada
_______________________
bob.darnell@home.com
Online Portfolio available at: www.members.home.net/bob.darnell
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Ken Henry
Henry & Henry Signs
London, Ontario Canada
(519) 439-1881
e-mail kjmlhenry@home.
Some days you get to be the dog....other days, you get to be the fire hydrant.
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Wayne Webb
Webb Sign Studio,Inc.
creators of "woodesigns"
"autograph your work with excellence"
webbsignstudio@digitalexp.com
I'll be 30 this January and was never fully able to grasp, while in school and unable to vote, what this man did for ALL of Canada while in office. Financial disasters seem to follow all of our political parties when they get into Provincial & Federal office.
What Trudeau did was the best attempts
I've seen to date on getting Canada to be the best country in the world to live in.
Maybe "attempt" is the wrong word. SUCCESS is the right one. Actions by Mulroney and Chretien seem to have divided our languages and cultures. Mulroney did his best to spell doom on small business with his GST and other policies put through the house of commons without little thought as to the end results to the taxpayers.
Thanks to Trudeau I am able to speak French and English, voice my beliefs in public without fear of being silenced by our governments, and other items which make for a proud Canadian.
We've lost a great man and Pierre Trudeau was one of those people who are so hard to replace when it comes to the values he held in office. I think his son Justin demonstrated what a great man he was in both political and family life.
Jean-Claude Theriault
Moncton, N.B.
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Pierre Elliott Trudeau must have been a great leader and friend to his people.
God bless Canada
a southern friend,
mark
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Mark Fair
Mark Fair Signs
http://www.markfair.com
flash site... http://www.markfair.com/flash.html
I Don't Work... I dis-PLAY
2162 Mt. Meigs Road
Montgomery, Alabama 36107
334-262-4449
"Mark Fair is a Proud Contributor to The Letterhead Site!"
Sure he created a debt...16 billion when he took office in 1968 and 200 billion when he left in '84. But then "Lyin'" Brian Mulroney's Conservatives ran it up to 520 billion in less than ten years. And the reform movement didn't start when Trudeau was in power, but during the Mulroney years.
In his day it was the way that governments ran things. Not just here but around the world. Times were different...economists worried constantly about inflation.
Economics aside I always admired the man because whatever he said he was going to do he did. If he believed that it was for the good of this country, then he did it.
No concern over opinion polls. Not worried about the next election.
How many politicians have we seen like that?
Remember Chretien and the GST?
He will be remembered as a real Canadian...he helped give us an identity. He showed us that we could be a real country. One country...two languages.
But then maybe I just feel this way since my wife is French!
Adieu, Pierre - semper paratus
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Dennis Veenema
The Sign Shop
Dresden, Ont.
&
GigaBytes Plus
"Where the plus is the service!"
)i'd rather have a leader that says "fuddle duddle" than "hey intern, want a cigar?" and i don't think he ever puked on anyone over dinner either.
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free to paint, day and night :)
Gailforce Airbrush & Design
Squamish, BC, Canada
www.gailforce.homestead.com
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"Keep Positive"
SIGNS1st.
Neil Butler
Paradise, NF