Editing Pierre Trudeau (section)

== Second World War ==
In his obituary, ''[[The Economist]]'' described Trudeau as "parochial as a young man", who "dismissed the [[second world war]] as a squabble between the big powers, although he later regretted 'missing one of the major events of the century'."<ref name="economist_obituary_20001005">{{Cite news|issn=0013-0613|title=Pierre Trudeau|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|date=October 5, 2000|access-date=February 22, 2020|url=https://www.economist.com/obituary/2000/10/05/pierre-trudeau|series=Obituary|archive-date=February 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222190153/https://www.economist.com/obituary/2000/10/05/pierre-trudeau|url-status=live}}</ref> In his 1993 ''Memoir,'' Trudeau wrote that the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 and his father's death were the two "great bombshells" that marked his teenage years.{{sfn|Trudeau (1993)|p=37}} In his first year at university, the prime topics of conversation were the [[Battle of France]], the [[Battle of Britain]], and the [[The Blitz|London blitz]].{{sfn|Trudeau (1993)|p=32}} He wrote that in the early 1940s, when he was in his early twenties, he thought, "So there was a war? Tough. It wouldn't stop me from concentrating on my studies so long as that was possible...[I]f you were a French Canadian in Montreal [at that time], you did not automatically believe that this was a just war. In Montreal in the early 1940s, we still knew nothing about the [[Holocaust]] and we tended to think of this war as a settling of scores among the superpowers."{{sfn|Trudeau (1993)|p=32}}

Young Trudeau opposed [[conscription]] for overseas service,{{sfn|Trudeau (1993)|p=32}} and in 1942 he campaigned for the anti-conscription candidate [[Jean Drapeau]] (later the [[mayor of Montreal]]) in [[Outremont (electoral district)|Outremont]].{{sfn|Trudeau (1993)|p=34}} Trudeau described a speech he heard in Montreal by [[Ernest Lapointe]],{{sfn|Trudeau (1993)|pp=32–35}} minister of justice and Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]]'s [[Quebec lieutenant]]. Lapointe had been a Liberal MP during the 1917 [[Conscription Crisis of 1917|Conscription Crisis]], in which the Canadian government had deployed up to 1,200 soldiers to suppress the anti-conscription Easter Riots in [[Quebec City]] in March and April 1918. In a final and bloody conflict, armed rioters fired on the troops, and the soldiers returned fire. At least five men were killed by gunfire and there were over 150 casualties and $300,000 in damage.<ref name="CHR_Auger_2008">{{cite journal |first=Martin F. |last=Auger |title=On the Brink of Civil War: The Canadian Government and the Suppression of the 1918 Quebec Easter Riots |journal=[[Canadian Historical Review]] |volume= 89 |number=4|date=December 2008 |pages=503–540 |doi=10.3138/chr.89.4.503}}</ref>{{rp|504}}<ref name="Granastein_1977">{{cite book |title=Broken Promises: A History of Conscription in Canada |first1=Jack Lawrence |last1=Granatstein |first2=J. |last2=MacKay Hitsman |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1977 |isbn=0-19-540258-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/brokenpromiseshi0000gran/page/281 281] |location=Toronto |url=https://archive.org/details/brokenpromiseshi0000gran/page/281 }}</ref>{{rp|60}} In 1939, it was Lapointe who helped draft the Liberals' policy against conscription for service overseas. Lapointe was aware that a new conscription crisis would destroy the national unity that Mackenzie King had been trying to build since the end of the [[First World War]].<ref name="Betcherman_2002">{{Cite book| publisher = University of Toronto Press| isbn = 978-0-8020-3575-2| last = Betcherman| first = Lita-Rose| title = Ernest Lapointe| date = 2002| jstor = 10.3138/9781442674592 | doi = 10.3138/9781442674592}}</ref> Trudeau believed Lapointe had lied and broken his promise. His criticisms of King's wartime policies, such as "suspension of habeas corpus", the "farce of bilingualism and French-Canadian advancement in the army," and the "forced 'voluntary' enrolment", were scathing.{{sfn|English (2006)|p=191}}

As a university student, Trudeau joined the [[Canadian Officers' Training Corps]] (COTC), which trained at the local armoury in Montreal during the school term and undertook further training at Camp Farnham each summer.{{sfn|Trudeau (1993)|p=34}} Although the ''[[National Resources Mobilization Act]]'', enacted in 1940, originally provided that conscripts could not be required to serve outside of Canada,<ref>''The National Resources Mobilization Act, 1940'', SC 1940, c. 13, s. 3.</ref> Parliament amended the act and removed that restriction in 1942.<ref>''The National Resources Mobilization Amendment Act, 1942'', SC 1942, c. 29, s. 3.</ref>  The [[Conscription Crisis of 1944]] arose in response to the [[Operation Overlord|Allied invasion of Normandy]] in June 1944.