It was, of course, on this date in 1980 that Pierre Elliott Trudeau entered the rarest membership status in the Prime Minister’s Club: He returned to power after losing Canada’s highest political office.  Before this, only Sir John A. Macdonald (1878), Arthur Meighen (only briefly in 1926) and Mackenzie King (in 1935) had succeeded in this remarkable political accomplishment. Mr. Trudeau’s return has particular historic importance in the sense it is amazing it had even occurred.  He’d been defeated by Joe Clark the previous May, proved to be a rather disinterested Leader of the Opposition in 1979 and had even announced his political retirement plans that fall.  But then came the defeat of Prime Minister Joe Clark’s government on the floor of the House of Commons and, as they say, the rest is history. For me, this anniversary is important in the sense it is the federal election I first remember well.  I was in Grade 8 then and I recall working on a project about the campaign for one of my teachers.  As a result, I closely followed the television coverage with my parents. “Welcome to the 1980s,” Trudeau announced as he started his victory speech to the nation from the Chateau Laurier.  It was a moment and address that anyone watching would not soon forget.   caption id="attachment_541015" align="alignleft" width="727" Pierre Trudeau, 1980/caption Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.