Just Watch Me. The Constitution. Pirouetting behind the Queen. Flipping off western protesters. A rose in the lapel.
Iconic images of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, one of the enduring figures in modern Canada.
When the lifelong Montrealer died in September of 2000, it marked the passing of an era that might never return - the days when a politician could captivate a nation and make sweeping social changes without the unrelenting scrutiny of 500 channels and 10,000 websites.
The lines of young Canadians who flocked to Ottawa to pay respects to Trudeau showed that some people can indeed transcend generations.
His death also highlighted the man's divisive nature, especially in Quebec.
The story received somewhat less coverage in his home province than did the passing of Maurice (Rocket) Richard a few months earlier.
That might have had something to do with the nature of the man himself - self-assured and confident to his fans, cocky and arrogant to others.
Trudeaumania
He swept to power in 1968 on a wave of "Trudeaumania" - good-looking, urbane and single, much to the delight of young women - one of whom he married.
His tumultuous union with 22-year-old beauty Margaret Trudeau, who bore him three sons, captivated the country all over again but ultimately ended in divorce.
Previously, as justice minister, Trudeau had made sweeping social reforms in areas such as gay rights and divorce, famously saying "the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation."
Crisis
Trudeau's early years were marked by one of the pivotal moments in Quebec history - The October crisis.
FLQ terrorists kidnapped British trade representative James Cross and Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte.
Laporte was later found dead, and mayor Jean Drapeau and premier Robert Bourassa recommended Trudeau take action against the terror threat.
The prime minister invoked the War Measures Act, suspending civil liberties and sending troops into Ottawa and Montreal.
The move was controversial - but not to Trudeau.
When a journalist asked how far he was willing to go with the draconian measures, he replied - "Just watch me," a phrase that epitomized the man's resolve, and some would say, his intransigence.
The sheen wore off during the 1970s even as Trudeau's Liberal government managed to stay in power for 11 consecutive years.
He alienated the west with his reviled National Energy Program that saw oil revenue flow east.
He also angered Quebec nationalists with his tough, centrist stance as the Parti Quebecois government took hold and set the stage for a referendum on sovereignty.
Magnum Opus
The timing of the PQ's rise clashed with Trudeau's great achievement - the drafting of the Constitution, which was finalized in 1982.
Rene-Levesque's government refused to sign the document and Quebec has never officially endorsed it, leaving a gaping hole in the national fabric that remains to this day.
But through it all, Trudeau remained a powerful figure who elicited the sort of viscerally emotional response not afforded to most of today's political figures.
By the time Trudeau died of prostate cancer in his art-deco home on Pine Avenue in 2000, his status as one of Canada's great prime ministers was assured and even his separatist adversaries showed admiration for his intellect and principle.
Remembered
Colleague Roy Heenan, with whom Trudeau worked at a Montreal law firm in his final years, eulogized his good friend thusly:
"I'm told that Pierre Elliott Trudeau died last Thursday. The man maybe, but his ideas live on.
"This vision has changed forever the sense of ourselves as a society. This is his legacy to us. This is the testament of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who left it to all Canadian men and women that he loved so well. We will also remember that on a deeper and more personal level, he challenged us all to be the very best that we could be. We have been touched by greatness."
