Early Life and Time Before Entering Politics
Trudeau was born on December 25, 1971, in Ottawa, Ontario. He was only the second child in Canadian history to be born when one of his parents was prime minister; the first was John A. Macdonald's youngest daughter Margaret Mary Macdonald, and Trudeau's younger brothers Alexandre (Sacha) (born December 25, 1973) and Michel (1975–98) were the third and fourth, respectively. In addition to his father's involvement in politics, Justin's maternal grandfather, James Sinclair, was a federal cabinet minister.
Pierre and Margaret Trudeau separated in 1977, when Justin was six years old, and Pierre retired as prime minister in 1984. In later years, his father's relationship with Deborah Coyne would give him a half-sister, Sarah Elisabeth Coyne. Of his mother and father's marriage, Trudeau said in 2009, "They loved each other incredibly, passionately, completely. But there was 30 years between them and my mom never was an equal partner in what encompassed my father's life, his duty, his country."
Pierre Trudeau raised his children in relative privacy in Montreal. In 2008, Justin said that of all his early family outings he enjoyed camping with his father the most, because "that was where our father got to be just our father — a dad in the woods." Justin actively supported the Liberal Party from a young age, offering his personal support to embattled party leader John Turner in the 1988 federal election. Two years later, he defended Canadian federalism at a student event at the Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf.
Trudeau emerged as a prominent figure in his own right in October 2000, after delivering a memorable eulogy at his father's state funeral. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) received numerous calls to rebroadcast the speech after its initial transmission, and leading Quebec politician Claude Ryan described it as "perhaps the first manifestation of a dynasty." A book issued by the CBC in 2003 included the speech in its list of significant Canadian events from the past fifty years.
Trudeau has a Bachelor of Arts degree in literature from McGill University and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of British Columbia. After graduation, he worked as a social studies and French teacher at West Point Grey Academy and Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School in Vancouver, British Columbia. From 2002 to 2004, he studied engineering at the Université de Montréal. He also started a Master of Arts degree in Environmental Geography at McGill University before suspending his program to seek public office.
On May 28, 2005, Trudeau married Sophie Grégoire, a former model and Quebec television host. They have two children.
In 2006, Trudeau had a cameo in the two-part CBC miniseries The Great War, portraying Talbot Mercer Papineau (1883–1917). Papineau was killed in action in Ypres, Belgium and was among Canada's first Rhodes Scholars. Coincidentally, Trudeau later became the Member of Parliament for a riding named after Talbot Mercer Papineau's lineage. The program was broadcast in 2007.
Trudeau is one of several children of former prime ministers who have become Canadian media personalities. The others are Ben Mulroney, Catherine Clark, and Justin's younger brother, Alexandre. Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney were longtime foes, but this rivalry did not carry over to their sons; Ben Mulroney was a guest at Justin Trudeau's wedding.
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