“Low-Bridging the Leader”: Keith Davey and the Return of Pierre Trudeau, 1979–80

Pierre Trudeau’s victory in the 1980 election saw him returned to power and ready to undertake an ambitious agenda, including the establishment of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which continues to shape Canada. Yet Trudeau had been defeated a year prior and was on his way out of politics, seemingly for good. This article explores that rapid turnaround through the work of Keith Davey, a Liberal Party strategist who helped convince Trudeau to return to the Liberal leadership following the defeat of the Clark government and then executed a unique strategy that saw Trudeau win re-election by minimizing his public profile. Based on extensive research in Davey’s archival records, this article argues that the 1980 election provides a glimpse into key trends in recent Canadian political history, such as the rising centralization of power around the party leader, unhappiness with that centralization in the broader party, a resurgence of Canadian economic nationalism shortly before it would be overtaken by neoliberalism, and an increasingly tense relationship between the Liberal Party and Western Canada.