Michel Trudeau

Michel Trudeau was born at the Ottawa Civic Hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on 2nd October 1975. He was named after his paternal grandfather. He was the youngest of the three Trudeau sons born to Pierre Trudeau and Margaret Trudeau. Michel, as a four months old kid was visited by former Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, when his parents were on a trip to Cuba. Castro nicknamed him Miche. Michel always was very ‘kind and adventurous’ one of all her children, as recalled by his mother.

When Pierre said goodbye to politics for good in 1984, Michel relocated from Ottawa to Montreal, from where he completed his early education. Being an adventure freak, Michel always liked the adventure sports and his summer holidays, more often than not, were spent at the summer camps. He liked being close to the nature and didn’t care a lot about other things in his life, including academics. But despite that, he was a sharp student and was always in the good-books of the teachers.

Three Trudeau brothers - Justin, Alexandre and Michel - would spend their summers in the camps, mostly at Algonquin Provincial Park’s Camp Ahmek. Michel later went on to work there as a camp counsellor, a job which he quite liked as it gave him opportunity to explore his wild side further and he always loved being in close proximity of nature. His pursuit of becoming a microbiologist got him enrolled in the Dalhousie University, but camping and adventure sports never quite left him and he continued visiting the places he loved in the arms of Mother Nature whenever he found the time.

Michel had just started working at a Mountain Resort in Rossland, British Columbia, but again, his adventures with his friends had become a part of his life, and whenever he found the time, he would embark on trips with them. On one such trip, this time in the Kokanee Glacier Park on 13th November 1998 with three of his friends, Michel embarked on a skiing trip. All four of them were having the time of their lives until the avalanche formed up and as brutish a force of nature that it is, it swept away Michel and separated him from his friends and he fell in the freezing Kokanee Lake.

Michel tried his best to reach the shore, but the freezing lake wouldn’t let him give his 100 percent and eventually, after a lot of struggle, Michel gave up. His friends found themselves unable to help him and Michel drowned into the lake. One other of his friends was also swept away in the lake, but he managed to swim to the shore.

When the Trudeau family came to know of it, they were emotionally destroyed, and extensive search was initiated to locate the body, but all the efforts went in vain due to the extremely high altitude of the terrain on and very little days of open water into the frozen lake. A year later, the Trudeau family called off the search for Michel and accepted with bitter hearts, that Michel was no more with them.

On 20th November 1998, the memorial service was held for Michel Trudeau in Quebec, which was attended by close family members and friends. His friends, who were rescued by the choppers after the incident, were present there at the memorial service and mentioned how courageous he had been all the while they were together. ‘He was a risk-taker, the bravest of us all’, said one of the friends.

Trudeau family lost their youngest son, who was known to be a courageous risk-taker. His brother and the current Prime minister of Canada Justin Trudeau said that when he got the call about his death, he first didn’t believe it but when it came upon him that his little brother became victim of an avalanche, he was broken. Upon being asked about his brother in the interviews, he said that he was a brave guy and would have tried till his last breathe to survive.

His mother Margaret gets a bit too emotional while remembering Michel and says that Michel inherited the best traits of both his elder brothers and was usually a very happy, and well balanced young man who had his priorities in life sorted. The family suffered another big loss two years later when Pierre, Michel’s father died.

Justin went on remembering his brother, and said that just about a year ago, both the brothers were watching a documentary on burials and Michel asked his brother jokingly that in case he dies in the mountains, let him be buried there and never take his body out. ‘He had a huge friend circle’, said his brother, who went on saying that everybody would be surprised to know that he was the son of a former Canadian Prime Minister, as he was such a down to earth person.