An Office Microcosm Of Pierre Trudeau’s Life

10/24/2024

I visited Heenan Blaikie law firm in its Montreal glory days just post Pierre Trudeau’s death.

Trudeau had an office for many years at the firm and I was there during my journalist days at the Ottawa Citizen. Heenan Blaikie had preserved Trudeau’s office and it was ripe for a good story and photos.

All this reminiscing comes about because of a new book by Adam Dodek, Heenan Blaikie: The Making and Unmaking of a Great Canadian Law Firm, The title speaks for itself and I was as shocked as any when I heard that the firm went under a few years after my visit with furniture and bankers boxes being hauled out in front of the nation’s television cameras.

When I visited, firm patriarch Roy Heenan held court regaling me with stories of Trudeau, his loves and peculiarities. Sacha Trudeau stopped in as well though he was reluctant to talk until Citizen photographer Wayne Cuddington skillfully got him to answer a few questions. Heenan was as smooth and charming a man as you could ever meet. Sacha was a bit awkward but friendly.

Nevertheless the star of the show was the former prime minister’s office. It just dripped Trudeau. Over his desk was an enormous portrait of his young family, a small library of books that included Law for Dummies and the office had an unparalleled view of Montreal from a towering floor in a skyscraper. In front of the floor-to-ceiling windows was a small couch, where Trudeau took his afternoon naps. Beside his desk was a tiny water-marked vase where he kept his lapel rose. On a small ledge in front of the windows was a model of his famous Mercedes convertible and a small wooden representation of a canoe.

When the furniture was being dispatched from the failed Heenan Blaikie, I quickly called the then Museum of Civilization in Gatineau to ask if they were interested in the Trudeau office because they best move fast to get what remained of it. One official said she “knew” of it but would say no more. I don’t know what became of it. One hopes it’s not residing in a Montreal landfill.

The story worked out well in the Citizen with my story being serviceable but Cuddington’s brilliant photos the highlight of the full newspaper page.

The Ottawa Citizen today is running an excerpt of Dodek’s book. Below is an excerpt from the Citizen excerpt.

Heenan Blaikie was home to former prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chrétien, future and former cabinet ministers and Supreme Court justices and future Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole.
Justin Trudeau was not a member of the firm, but he was a client. Heenan Blaikie had offices in Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Quebec City, Trois Rivières, Sherbrooke and Paris.
Heenan Blaikie was a great Canadian law firm.

To read the full excerpt from the Citizen, click here.

Ken Gray