Justin Trudeau became a national figure on Oct. 3, 2000. While delivering the eulogy at the state funeral for his father, Pierre Trudeau, the 29-year-old became the heir apparent for the future of the Liberal Party.
“Friends, Romans, countrymen,” he began, “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.” His father was perhaps the most controversial, and consequential, prime minister in Canadian history. He ended the eulogy by saying: “But this is not the end. He left politics in ’84 …. But he won’t be coming back anymore. It’s all up to us, all of us, now.”
