“Max and Monique Nemni’s biography of Pierre Elliott Trudeau is not “just another book on Trudeau.” The authors in their magisterial second volume in the Trudeau, Son of Québec, Father of Canada series, trace the development of Trudeau as a political thinker and a political leader. With superb access to the prime minister’s papers and with astonishing attention to detail, the authors chart the political development of one of Canada’s most important leaders. This is the intellectual history of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, but it also the story of his emergence as a political leader where theories and ideas bumped up against the practical demands of politics. For Canadians interested in the story of the political formation of a charismatic prime minister, this is an important book.” – 2011 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing Jury (David Akin, Charlotte Gray, and Janice Gross Stein)

“In 2006, no single book had the psychological impact of Max and Monique Nemni’s Young Trudeau. It changed the perceptions and challenged the political reflexes of Canadians. Conceived as an act of homage, it turned into a journey of shocking discovery. As the Nemnis examined Pierre Trudeau’s private papers, they found a very different young man than they had expected or previous accounts had revealed. The unshakeable federalist who became Canada’s 15th Prime Minister had once plotted to take Quebec out of Canada. The eloquent democrat who penned Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms had once shrugged off Nazi atrocities and admired fascism. It is a tribute to the Nemnis’ skill and scholarship that Mr. Trudeau emerges undiminished from their portrait. They show how he was shaped by pre-war Quebec with its all-powerful church, its authoritarianism, and its separatist yearnings and how he eventually broke free.”-- 2006 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing Jury (Carol Goar, Arthur Kroeger, and Susan Riley)