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Trudeau in 1952, at the behest of their mutual friend, Gerard Pelletier, in an encounter that set the tone for most of their future dealings. "You speak well," said Trudeau brusquely, "but can you write?" Trudeau then reminded the startled journalist that Lévesque was two years overdue on a promised contribution to Cite Libre.
In 1960, Lévesque was elected a member of the Quebec Liberal government headed by Premier Jean Lesage, and thus was in on the beginning of the Quiet Revolution. As Minister of Natural Resources, Lévesque soon established himself as a radical force within the Cabinet, and in 1963 pushed through one of the most important measures of that period: nationalization of the province's private electrical utilities into Hydro-Quebec (current assets: $6.5 billion). At the time Lévesque was labeled "René the Red" for his advocacy of the scheme. He was twitted by Trudeau, then a Montreal law professor, for insisting on a full takeover of the utilities. Partial takeover was enough, said Trudeau; spending public funds to own more than that was an expensive currying of nationalist pride. Lévesque was a strong Quebec nationalist even then. Said he in 1963: "I am first a Quebecois and second, with a rather growing doubt, a Canadian."
Trudeau took the opposite tack for solving Quebec's problems; he sought to change English Canada from within. Convinced of the need to fight rising separatism, he entered national politics in 1965 as a Liberal member of Parliament from Mount Royal in Montreal. Three years later, after serving as Canada's Justice Minister and Attorney-General, he succeeded the late Lester ("Mike") Pearson as Prime Minister. During Trudeau's first election campaign, young girls—including his future wife—flung themselves at him. Businessmen asked for his autograph. Crowds gathered wherever he went. Said Trudeau in those palmy days: "However Canadians are classified, the needs of each must be recognized."
In trying to meet that ideal, Trudeau, in one of his first major steps, elevated French to equal status with English, at least insofar as the federal government could. His 1969 Official Languages Act provided that French could be used in federal courts across Canada and in any dealings with the government. He raised the number of French-speaking employees in Canada's 330,000-member civil service from 9% to 27%, roughly their proportion of the population. Trudeau warned English-speaking bureaucrats that they would need fluency in both languages for many jobs, and had language courses instituted for them. Legislation was passed requiring that products be labeled in French as well as English. When an English-speaking man expressed horror at seeing "paillettes de maïis " (cornflakes) on one side of his breakfast-cereal box, the Prime Minister snapped: "Turn the damned box around!"
Trudeau's $750 million bilingualism program upset many bureaucrats. In the Western provinces, it was felt