[Royal Eagle]

Trudeau was a Canadian icon and perhaps the most controversial political figure of our history. He was an intelligent man who stuck to his principles and constantly defended justice and freedom, will say his admirers, while his detractors will accuse him of arrogance, of favouring a strongly centralized form of government and economic incompetence.

But you can't certainly deny that he was ahead of his time, particularly based on his views about Canadian identity and multiculturalism. His tolerant views towards integration of immigrants, his unyielding rejection of a ethnic, race-based concept of nation, and his promotion of civil rights ideals. He wanted a country where individual rights and justice superseded social, political and cultural entities. His famous words :''The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation¸'' regarding the private lives of homosexuals demonstrate that, as he was opposed to the social conservatism and discrimination of gays at that time.


And any liberal and defender of civil rights who respects himself would forever praise him for establishing the Charter of Rights and freedoms in Canada's 1982 constitution. Sticking to his principles, he helped Canada to be a land where any law-abiding citizen will have his constitutional and civil rights respected first and firemost.