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Later, Trudeau went to the University of Montreal Law School, studied political economy at Harvard and, after World War II, at the University of Paris and the London School of Economics. But Trudeau, who was working on a Ph.D. thesis, became restless, one day packed up a knapsack and set out on an 18-month trek through Europe, the Middle East and Asia. One of his adventures: he swam the Bosporus. Returning to Quebec, Trudeau fought against the decrepit, reactionary regime of Provincial Premier Maurice Duplessis. He wrote for an intellectual magazine called Cite Libre that helped bring a business and cultural boom to the province. He also worked as a labor lawyer and as an adviser to the Privy Council, later taught law classes at the University of Montreal.
Convinced that Ottawa lacked a philosophy of federalism to deal with Quebec, Trudeau successfully ran for Parliament in 1965. Liberal Prime Minister Lester Pearson soon after named him his parliamentary secretary and, in April 1967, appointed him Justice Minister. In that post, Trudeau attracted attention by his courage in steering through Parliament three unpopular measures: stricter gun-control legislation and reforms of harsh laws against abortion and homosexuality. Against critics of the liberalized homosexual law, Trudeau demonstrated his sense of irony. "Are we going to put all sin in the criminal code?" he asked them. "If so, it would be a pretty thick book. The state has no business in the nation's bedrooms." At a Liberal Party convention in April, this kind of talk earned for Trudeau the rapt gaze of a nationwide TV audience. He outmaneuvered a brigade of party veterans to replace the retiring Pearson as Prime Minister. Then, while the nation was still dazzled by his convention victory, he gambled on dissolving Parliament and seeking his own mandate in an election.
Mind & Body. Until all this happened, Trudeau was not even listed in the Canadian Who's Who. His life was sheltered and private. He mixed in the rich English and French dinner-party circuit in Montreal and Ottawa, gathered around him people who were either from the same wealthy stratum of society or academically brilliant.
Trudeau embraces the Greek notion of developing both the mind and the body to perfection. In the tradition of the Canadian voyageur, his idea of relaxation is to climb a mountain, go skiing or snowshoeing, paddle and portage his canoe, or just drive out into the country and go exploring in the woods. He has a pilot's license, a brown belt in judo. Sometimes, during a dinner at a friend's house, he will excuse himself and stand on his head in the corner for five minutes. Exuberantly boyish, he likes to slide down banisters or vault over platform railings to shake hands. He drinks only moderately—wine with meals, an occasional aperitif or whisky. But he despises smoking, which he looks upon, according to one friend, "as the most barbaric habit in the modern world."