Guy Bouthillier set out to understand why Trudeau, a fervent nationalist aspiring to freedom for Quebec until his late twenties, would impose the War Measures in 1970 under the false pretext of an “anticipated insurrection.” He also wanted to know how Trudeau could praise Europe’s right-wing extremists and anti-Semites in the 1930s and 1940s and later accuse the entire Quebec sovereignty movement led by René Lévesque in the 60s and the 70s of being Nazi replicas.

Bouthillier found answers by delving into Trudeau’s prolific writings as a youth and as an adult, as well as what his friends, collaborators, biographers, and adversaries wrote and said about him. Like a 5000-piece puzzle, he manages to make sense of disparate pieces of information that, taken individually and out of context, would not make sense. The result is an essay that reads like a novel, and has a surprising ending.

Pierre-Elliott Trudeau was driven by a consuming ambition to be number one, to be the leader. This ambition was accompanied by a deep contempt for the people beneath him, above all for the people of Quebec, but also by a fascination with violence, first with fists, but also with weapons, verbal or military, and people who took power violently.