A Son's Goodbye

Here is the text of the eulogy given by Justin Trudeau for his father:

"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 clamboured 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."

Montreal, Quebec
3rd October 2000
CBC Canada

janet paterson
53 now / 44 dx cd / 43 onset cd / 41 dx pd / 37 onset pd
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