Pierre Trudeau officially joined one of Canada’s rarest political clubs on this date in 1980 with his re-election as Prime Minister. Only a few months before he’d been tossed from office after his defeat the hands of Progressive Conservative Joe Clark.
In December 1979, and despite the fact he’d just announced his retirement from politics, Trudeau (and his party) led the charge that saw Clark’s government’s defeat in the Commons after introducing their first budget. The nation was plunged into a winter election and Trudeau was returned to power. In doing so, he joined Sir John A. Macdonald, Mackenzie King and Arthur Meighen in becoming one of those few PMs who made the ultimate comeback, becoming Prime Minister again after a defeat.
“Well, welcome to the 1980s,” a happy Trudeau told supporters and the nation during his victory speech, delivered at the storied Chateau Laurier in Ottawa.
You can watch Trudeau’s speech at this link: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.3281879
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.