At a certain point in our lives, we are left only with our close relationships and our clear recollections. Any time I want, I can reach into my satchel of memories and pull out an occasion such as the time in 2000 when I met Pierre Elliott Trudeau for lunch in Montreal. As we headed for his favourite spot, I noticed that he was walking with a slight limp. “Oh,” he said, with a dismissive wave, “I fell skiing a couple weeks ago at Mont Tremblant.” I was not surprised that, at eighty, he was still as physically active as...

Wars and other international crises have dominated my life since I was a boy. On September 1, 1939, my mother, my sister Janet, and I were preparing to leave Winnipeg after our annual summer vacation with my maternal grandparents. My mother’s brothers, Lloyd and Harry, had come to say their goodbyes. The occasion was made sombre by the news that the German blitzkrieg had rolled into Poland. As we all sat in my grandparents’ living room, listening to reports on the radio, even as a seven-year-old I understood that the world had just changed for the worse.

We spent the...

My mother’s name was Marjorie, but everybody called her Mar. She was tall and thin and had a high, patrician forehead. She attended Brandon College and met my father after the First World War when he resumed his role with the Dominion Forest Service. He was sent to Riding Mountain National Park, north of Brandon, Manitoba, to conduct air photography and fire protection work. They were married in 1925 at the Stovel family mansion at 6 Ruskin Row in the elegant Winnipeg neighbourhood of Crescentwood. In 1928, my father was promoted to the departmental offices in Ottawa as a fire...

Because I had done my first year at Carleton, I needed just two years at Trinity for my three-year pass arts degree. I lived at the Deke house in my final year, where several brothers introduced me to music, an area where my education had been sorely neglected. I had been too young to appreciate the rise of the swing era when it was happening. My lifelong devotion to Benny Goodman began with the release in 1950 of the three-LP set recorded live at Carnegie Hall in 1938. Among my favourite songs were “Don’t Be That Way,” “One O’Clock Jump,”...

If Harvard was brash, Cambridge was bucolic. Trinity Hall was founded in 1350, but even so, it’s only the fifth-oldest college comprising the University of Cambridge. While all of the architecture at Cambridge is breathtaking, Trinity Hall has long been admired for both its beauty and riverside site. Said Anglo–American novelist Henry James, “If I were called upon to mention the prettiest corner of the world, I should draw a thoughtful sigh and point the way to the gardens of Trinity Hall.”

My room was spacious, fifteen by twenty feet, and had a bay window with a southern exposure,...

Two senior partners, Beverley Matthews and Salter Hayden, ran McCarthy & McCarthy. During the Second World War, Matthews attained the rank of brigadier in the 48th Highlanders and received the Order of the British Empire. He was active in the Progressive Conservative Party. Hayden ran as a Liberal in the Toronto riding of St Paul’s in the 1935 election, and was defeated, but was appointed to the Senate in 1940. Thus, the firm had close connections with both parties. Such political links mattered when it came to landing new business or putting clients in touch with the right Cabinet minister.

Founded...

Rosedale was a sprawling riding that stretched from Yonge Street on the west to the Don River on the east, Mount Pleasant Cemetery in the north all the way south to Lake Ontario, including the Toronto Islands. Within that area, the spread of annual income was huge – from high-paid bank executives living on Binscarth Road to the public housing of Regent Park.

When the election was called in April for June 18, 1962, other Liberal candidates running in Toronto appeared to stand a far better chance than I. In addition to Walter Gordon in Davenport, there was Mitchell Sharp,...

Among the many pleasures of being a Member of Parliament was the opportunity for foreign travel. In July 1965, I joined an all-party delegation to Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. On the trip were several senators, including David Croll, the first Jewish senator; four Liberal members of the House of Commons; three Progressive Conservatives, including Michael Starr, minister of labour in the Diefenbaker government; ndp leader Tommy Douglas; Réal Caouette, leader of the Ralliement des Créditistes; and Bud Olson, a Social Credit mp who later crossed the floor to the Liberals, supported Pierre Trudeau for leader, and became a Cabinet...

I first met Ethel Teitelbaum when she was a volunteer canvasser in my riding during the 1965 election. Ethel went on to work in our constituency office, became riding president in 1970–71, and then a political assistant in Ottawa when I was in Cabinet. She knew everybody and kept in touch with them all. As Ethel used to say, “Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone for me.”

Her knowledge and advice were never more important than on January 3, 1968. I was in my constituency office at 541 Parliament Street when Ethel called to ask, “Who are you supporting...

When Pierre first became prime minister in April 1968, I was named minister without portfolio and acting minister of justice. Finally, after six years and four elections, I was a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada. As such, I was granted the life designation “Honourable.” I would do everything I could to uphold that title and work hard for the people of Canada.

As a lawyer, Justice seemed like a logical place for me. But in July, after the election, when more permanent posts were handed out, Pierre had other ideas. First word about what that would be...

When I was first named president of the Queen’s Privy Council, I have to admit I was a bit mystified by that elegant but rather obscure title. I asked my mentor, Walter Gordon, who had held that same position in the Pearson government, exactly what the role entailed. He said that you never preside over anything, let alone a council, and in his two years in office he had never met Her Majesty. But, he assured me that the job had nothing whatsoever to do with a privy!

Pierre was the first prime minister to combine the ceremonial duties of...

Elgin Armstrong, deputy minister of national defence, strode into my office shortly after 9 a.m. on the morning of October 5, 1970. “Minister,” he said, “during the last hour, James Cross, the British trade commissioner, has been kidnapped from his home in Montreal by a cell of the Front de Libération du Québec.” I’d been in my new role for less than two weeks, barely enough time to be briefed about my duties. Suddenly, all previous priorities were swept aside.

The October Crisis was unleashed. As minister of national defence, I was involved in every major decision, including troop deployment...

In my role as minister of national defence, whenever I landed at Canadian Forces Base Downsview, a colonel would greet me on the tarmac with a brisk salute and a cheery “Good morning, Minister,” then usher me to a waiting taxi for my meetings in downtown Toronto. When I became minister of energy, mines and resources (emr), all that heady protocol disappeared. There was no colonel, just a corporal kicking the chocks under the wheels. “Hello,” I said. “Hiya,” he replied, and walked away. Among the members of the armed forces, I was suddenly a non-person.

I did, however, quickly...

On September 10, 1975, John Turner abruptly resigned as minister of finance, a post he’d held for three years. John’s timing couldn’t have been worse, eight days before a provincial election in Ontario. Pierre asked him to postpone his action until after the vote, but John refused, thus adding to Liberal leader Robert Nixon’s woes. The Liberals finished third; Stephen Lewis and the ndp replaced them as the official opposition. Bill Davis remained in government but with a minority.

I first heard the news when Jean Chrétien called me and said, “John Turner has resigned, saying that as ministers we...

During my time as minister in various portfolios, I met many of the world’s leaders, including Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin, US presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, British prime minister Edward Heath, Chinese premier Chou En-lai, and the Shah of Iran. I learned something about leadership from each of them and always came away with a better understanding of them as individuals, their nations, and how to deal with the major issues of the day.

Leaders can achieve great goals through cables, negotiations, carefully crafted statements, and grand public occasions, but when it comes to really knowing people on the...

My family was relieved when I left politics and was ready to see more of me at home. Our four girls then ranged in age from fifteen to five. Today, my grown daughters have children of their own. The eldest, Leigh, now living in Peterborough, Ontario, is an artist and has a teenaged son, Angus, named for my father and grandfather. Nikki is executive director of government relations at the University of Victoria, is working on a Ph.D. in public administration, and with her husband, Ned Jackson, has two children, Sarah and Meghan. Althea sang as a mezzosoprano with the...

From the moment I resigned from Cabinet in September 1977, the phone didn’t ring as often, there were no more briefing books, and much of the stress in my life vanished. I felt a bit like a deep-sea diver suffering from the bends after coming up from the ocean floor. I soon realized, however, that a wider world awaited. Even before I resigned as minister of finance, my name was being bandied about for secretary general of nato. US secretary of state Cyrus Vance supported the idea.

I sought advice from John Aird, a Liberal Senator and later lieutenant governor...

When Brian Mulroney was elected prime minister in September 1984, we worried he would kill the Royal Commission that had been launched by a Liberal government. There was a collective sigh of relief when his letter to us dated November 2, 1984, left the mandate untouched. He declared a special interest in five topics: deficits, entrepreneurship, trade, employment, and youth. We were well covered on the first four, less so on the fifth, so we focused additional attention on youth during our final few months.

By then, some of our recommendations were becoming obvious: the need for a globally competitive...

While I was chairing the Royal Commission, Ruth was able to pursue her own interests, something she could not freely do as a political wife when we were in Ottawa. She joined the Toronto-based Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (cifar), an organization founded by Fraser Mustard, a physician who did cancer research, studied childhood development, and generally was a force to be reckoned with. cifar brought together researchers in such diverse fields as education, economics, health, and high tech.

Because of Ruth’s fundraising efforts, the Mulroney government provided $7 million, an amount matched by the private sector. “We would not...

Viewed from Canada, the Royal Family may seem distant or, to some, even irrelevant. But I defy even the grouchiest anti-monarchist to live in London for a while without learning to respect the Royals. They work hard at their jobs. The Court Circular lists their daily duties in the newspapers at great length. Each of them regularly participates in numerous public events, including calls on mayors and municipalities, ribbon-cuttings, hospital tours, award presentations, tea with luminaries, fundraising events, visits with veterans, and presiding at banquets.

At one time or another, we were in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen...

Returning from London in 1991, I rejoined my former law firm again, and found it much transformed after three years. McCarthy & McCarthy had merged in 1990 with Clarkson Tétrault to create McCarthy Tétrault. As a result, the firm had 500 lawyers in seven Canadian cities plus Hong Kong and London. The change was not all for the better. After a while, I concluded that the firm did not really know how to use the expertise of former politicians and diplomats such as myself to everyone’s best advantage.

In the US, folks can more easily move among many fields. There, such...

No, I never became prime minister. I never wanted to be the head of government and didn’t need the role to establish my sense of self-worth. Going from an Ashbury boy in the visitors’ gallery watching parliamentary proceedings all the way to the front bench of Pierre Trudeau’s government was grand ride enough for me.

As chairman of the Macdonald Commission, I wasted no time on partisan matters or the petty side of politics. I was able to change the very nature of our economy forever by overseeing thorough research, envisioning a strategy, and making the case for free trade....