User:Ogopogo/Pierre Trudeau, Canada's Philosopher King
“The safest general characterization of modern Canadian history is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Pierre Trudeau and Wayne Gretzky.”
~ Oscar Wilde
Canada's Philosopher King, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, ruled from April 20, 1968 to June 3, 1979, and from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984. He is not to be confused with Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, who was more of an Action Hero than a Philosopher King.
The Philosopher King's theories of the Just Society and the Justin Society and the role of a philosopher king were, of course, modelled after the teachings in Plato's dialogues The Republic, The Statesman and The Sophist. His ground-breaking adage that the state should stay out of the nation's bedrooms was based on common sense and inspired by the two-part CBC documentary The Kinsey Reports.
Prior to housing changes introduced by the Philosopher King, Canadians lived in dark pre-Platonic caves.
In 1982, the Philosopher King relocated Canada's constitution to Canada, giving the country the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms 1.0 and making it a Republic.