Trudeau (film)

"Trudeau" was a 2002 television miniseries dramatizing the life of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. It aired on CBC Television and was written by Wayne Grigsby and directed by Jerry Ciccoritti.

The miniseries was one of the highest-rated Canadian television programs of the year. It won several Gemini Awards, including Best Actor, Best Writing and Best Direction.

It follows Pierre Trudeau through the major events of his political mandates up to the patriation of the Canadian Constitution. A few of the major characters in the film (notably "Greenbaum" and "Duncan") are fictional, or composite characters.

A prequel, "Trudeau II" came out in 2005, examining Trudeau's early life.

Cast

* Colm Feore - Pierre Elliott Trudeau
* Polly Shannon - Margaret Trudeau
* Patrick McKenna - Duncan
* Don McKellar - Greenbaum
* Peter Outerbridge - Jim Coutts
* Raymond Cloutier - Gérard Pelletier
* Raymond Bouchard - Jean Marchand
* Luc Proulx - René Lévesque
* R. H. Thomson - Mitchell Sharp
* Guy Richer - Jean Chrétien
* Jean Marchand ¹ - Marc Lalonde
* Geraint Wyn Davies - Bill Davis
* Eric Peterson - Tommy Douglas
* Robert Bockstael - Roy McMurtry
* Ron White - James Sinclair
* Sara Botsford - Kathleen Sinclair
* Michael Copeman - Robert Stanfield
* Brian Heighton - Brian Peckford
* Gary Levert - Roy Romanow
* Jean-Guy Moreau - Jean Drapeau
* Stephen Morgan - Bryce Mackasey
* William Parsons - Lester B. Pearson
* Hugh Thompson - Ron Basford
* Karl Pruner - John Turner
* David McIlwraith - Peter Lougheed

Archival footage of Joe Clark, Knowlton Nash and Queen Elizabeth II is used in the film. Cynthia Dale and Peter Mansbridge also have small roles; Mansbridge plays himself.

Trivia

In several interviews at the time of the premiere, actual Trudeau PMO bureaucrats commented on the general accuracy of the film with one major exception. Most characters in the film refer to Trudeau as "Mr. Prime Minister." This is improper Canadian government protocol; the prime minister is simply referred to as "Prime Minister", although it is not uncommon for the Prime Minister to be addressed by the former as well as the latter. It is notable that actor R. H. Thomson refused to use the scripted address and ad-libbed instead.

Notes

* ¹ This is an actor, who should not be confused with the "character" of the same name listed earlier.

External links

*imdb title|id=0299404|title=Trudeau