Today’s entry from the annals of Canadian political history needs no introduction from yours truly.  With the October Crisis of 1970 as backdrop, CBC journalist Tim Ralfe recorded an impromptu interview with then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau as the PM entered the Centre Block on Parliament Hill.  This interview remains today, arguably, the most famous exchange ever between a journalist and a Prime Minister of Canada.  To watch a video of the sparring between PM Trudeau and Mr. Ralfe, click here.   Below is a transcript of the historic encounter.Tim Ralfe: …what you're talking about to me is choices, and my choice is to live in a society that is free and democratic, which means that you don't have people with guns running around in it.Pierre Trudeau: Correct.Ralfe: And one of the things I have to give up for that choice is the fact that people like you may be kidnapped.Trudeau: Sure, but this isn't my choice, obviously. You know, I think it is more important to get rid of those who are committing violence against the total society and those who are trying to run the government through a parallel power by establishing their authority by kidnapping and blackmail. And I think it is our duty as a government to protect government officials and important people in our society against being used as tools in this blackmail. Now, you don't agree to this but I am sure that once again with hindsight, you would probably have found it preferable if Mr. Cross and Mr. Laporte had been protected from kidnapping, which they weren't because these steps we're taking now weren't taken. But even with your hindsight I don't see how you can deny that.Ralfe: No, I still go back to the choice that you have to make in the kind of society that you live in.Trudeau: Yes, well there are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don't like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed, but it is more important to keep law and order in this society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don't like the looks of a soldier's helmet.Ralfe: At any cost? How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?Trudeau: Well, just watch me.Ralfe: At reducing civil liberties? To that extent?Trudeau: To what extent?Ralfe: Well, if you extend this and you say, ok, you're going to do anything to protect them, does this include wire-tapping, reducing other civil liberties in some way?Trudeau: Yes, I think the society must take every means at its disposal to defend itself against the emergence of a parallel power which defies the elected power in this country and I think that goes to any distance. So long as there is a power in here which is challenging the elected representative of the people I think that power must be stopped and I think it's only, I repeat, weak-kneed bleeding hearts who are afraid to take these measures.Tim Ralfe: …what you're talking about to me is choices, and my choice is to live in a society that is free and democratic, which means that you don't have people with guns running around in it.Pierre Trudeau: Correct.Ralfe: And one of the things I have to give up for that choice is the fact that people like you may be kidnapped.Trudeau: Sure, but this isn't my choice, obviously. You know, I think it is more important to get rid of those who are committing violence against the total society and those who are trying to run the government through a parallel power by establishing their authority by kidnapping and blackmail. And I think it is our duty as a government to protect government officials and important people in our society against being used as tools in this blackmail. Now, you don't agree to this but I am sure that once again with hindsight, you would probably have found it preferable if Mr. Cross and Mr. Laporte had been protected from kidnapping, which they weren't because these steps we're taking now weren't taken. But even with your hindsight I don't see how you can deny that.Ralfe: No, I still go back to the choice that you have to make in the kind of society that you live in.Trudeau: Yes, well there are a lot of bleeding hearts around who just don't like to see people with helmets and guns. All I can say is, go on and bleed, but it is more important to keep law and order in this society than to be worried about weak-kneed people who don't like the looks of a soldier's helmet.Ralfe: At any cost? How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?Trudeau: Well, just watch me.Ralfe: At reducing civil liberties? To that extent?Trudeau: To what extent?Ralfe: Well, if you extend this and you say, ok, you're going to do anything to protect them, does this include wire-tapping, reducing other civil liberties in some way?Trudeau: Yes, I think the society must take every means at its disposal to defend itself against the emergence of a parallel power which defies the elected power in this country and I think that goes to any distance. So long as there is a power in here which is challenging the elected representative of the people I think that power must be stopped and I think it's only, I repeat, weak-kneed bleeding hearts who are afraid to take these measures.[caption id="attachment_588351" align="alignleft" width="592"] Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and CBC reporter Tim Ralfe[/caption]Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.