Trudeau: The Missionary at 24 Sussex

When John Kennedy was running for President, one of the knocks against him was that he was a Catholic. It was feared he would, somehow, change the constitution. He didn't as it turned out, but in Canada—where that fear wasn't expressed—a Catholic did change the constitution and to a specifically Catholic model.

the Missionary

Even today few Canadians realize what happened in 1982. They think, if they think about it at all, that the constitution was 'repatriated' as if it had somehow left the country and was being returned. In fact, Canada didn't have a constitution and neither did its mother country, Britain.

Because neither country had a constitution, one couldn't be patriated, or repatriated. It didn't exist. 

The idea of a constitution setting out 'natural rights' was an American implementation of the philosophy of French writers of the 'Enlightenment' in the mid 18th Century. These same ideas were the ones that showed up thirty years later in the Napoleonic Code which became the basis of the Quebec Civil Code Trudeau studied when he went to law school in Montreal.

That, then, is the context but it doesn't explain the dynamic of why a Canadian Prime Minister, Catholic or otherwise, would go to the lengths he did to a) create the concept of a constitution and then b) insert a statement into it setting out natural rights.

The answer is that Trudeau was far more religious than most people believe. Indeed, he went beyond simple Christian rhetoric to question the philosophical foundations of society and how they should be reorganized in a Christian way. It's for these reasons he subscribed to the writings of Henri Bergson, author of Les deux sources de la morale et de la religion and the doctrine of 'Personalism' which is largely, though not entirely, based on Christian teaching.

In short, he was a religious mystic and when he assumed the Prime Ministership he became a missionary on a mission. That mission was to convert Canadians to a new way of thinking about themselves and society. Instead of believing they were part of groups, associations and cultures, he would have them think of each other first as individuals. There would be no distinctions between peoples, races, sexes or beliefs. He would back the Golden Rule with the rule of law.

It was the act of forcing this concept on Canadians that made Pierre Elliott Trudeau transcendent.

Take this reflection recounted by Christina McCall & Stephen Clarkson in the second volume of their book, Trudeau and Our Times, The Heroic Delusion. They're describing a television interview between Trudeau and David Frost (on page 246).

More revealing was a reference Trudeau made to the way his commitment to personalism had transformed his life. As he talked about the importance of his activist Catholic faith, his face took on the luminous look that high emotion often evoked in him. 

And later at the signing ceremony for the constitution outside the Parliament buildings:

Only the Prime Minister looked as though he was deriving real pleasure from the celebrations. Trudeau's face was once more radiant, his air of other-worldliness remarkable.

Other worldliness indeed! He had got the natives to worship his God, his way, not just once but forever. He had overturned their rude tribal society for the philosophical joys of activist Catholic evangelism.

And no one had even noticed!

Note:
Here's a longer version of this post with more detail and argumentation.