Faced with dementia diagnosis, Pierre Trudeau rejected cancer treatment: e-book

OTTAWA – Pierre Trudeau’s guiding motto in politics was “reason over passion.” In the end, it seems, he chose reason over life.

A newly released e-book from the Ottawa bureau chief for the Huffington Post reveals Trudeau refused treatment for advanced prostate cancer rather than face losing his famously sharp mind to dementia.

In “Contender: The Justin Trudeau Story,” Althia Raj writes that the former prime minister had been diagnosed with both metastasized prostate cancer and early-stage dementia.

Six months before his death in September 2000, she says he wanted the cancer to claim his life before the dementia took over — an account Justin Trudeau himself says he does not dispute.

The younger Trudeau says his father was completely lucid prior to his death and had no interest in prolonging it in exchange for a diminished quality of life.