The fuddle duddle incident in

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

political history occurred on February 16, 1971, when

Prime Minister of Canada The prime minister of Canada (french: premier ministre du Canada, link=no) is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority the elected House of Commons; as suc ...

Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and ...

was alleged to have spoken or at least mouthed

unparliamentary language Parliaments and legislative bodies around the world impose certain rules and standards during debates. Tradition has evolved that there are words or phrases that are deemed inappropriate for use in the legislature whilst it is in session. In a ...

in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

, causing a minor scandal. Trudeau mentioned the words "fuddle duddle" in an ambiguous answer to questions about what he may or may not have said in Parliament. In February 1971,

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accused Trudeau of having mouthed the words "fuck off" at them in the House of Commons. When pressed by television reporters on the matter, Trudeau would only freely admit having moved his lips, answering the question, "What were you thinking, when you moved your lips?" by rhetorically asking in return "What is the nature of your thoughts, gentlemen, when you say 'fuddle duddle' or something like that? God, you guys!" Thus, it remained unclear what Trudeau actually mouthed. In a 2015 speech, his son, and later Prime Minister,

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since ...

stated that his father "didn't actually just say 'fuddle duddle'".

Origin of the phrase

Trudeau may have coined the phrase on the spot. It did not gain wide currency in the long term, and did not enter most dictionaries of Canadian English other than the

Canadian Oxford Dictionary The ''Canadian Oxford Dictionary'' is a dictionary of Canadian English. First published by Oxford University Press Canada in 1998, it became a well-known reference for Canadian English. The second edition, published in 2004, contains about 300, ...

Media coverage

An unofficial transcript of the CBC clip is as follows:

In popular culture

There was, in 1971–72, a short-lived satirical magazine called ''Fuddle Duddle'', which aspired to be the Canadian equivalent of '' Mad'' magazine. However, it lasted only five issues before publication ceased. At least two songs related to the incident were released as record singles, and made the lower reaches of the Canadian charts. "Fuddle Duddle" by Antique Fair was written by Greg Hambleton and released on the Tuesday label through

Quality Records Quality Records was a Canadian entertainment company which released music albums in Canada on behalf of American record labels. They also released recordings by Canadian artists. The company operated between 1950 and 1985 with offices in Toron ...

(catalogue GH107X), reaching #68 on RPM's national chart. "Do the Fuddle Duddle" was written by Gary Alles, performed by The House of Commons and released on

GRT Records GRT Records was the name of both a U.S. and a Canadian record label, both created by General Recorded Tape, a California-based company that existed from 1965 to 1979.Richard GreenGRT of Canada, Ltd. The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2013-02-26. ...

(catalogue 1233-04). It peaked at #82 on the RPM chart. Members of the ad hoc group "The House of Commons" later helped form the successful Canadian chart group Dr. Music. The

Rolf Harris Rolf Harris (born 30 March 1930) is an Australian entertainer whose career has encompassed work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality. He often used unusual instruments in his performan ...

song "Vancouver Town '71" (#68 in Canada) also mentions how Alaskan oil could "leave our coast all fuddle-duddled up".

Mont Tremblant Resort Mont Tremblant Ski Resort (commonly referred to as Tremblant) is a year-round resort in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, Canada, located about northwest of Montreal. It is best known as a ski destination, but also features Lake Tremblant su ...

has a ski run named Fuddle Duddle. Trudeau had been a regular visitor to the resort in the past.

Justin Trudeau

A similar incident took place on December 14, 2011, when Trudeau's son

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, MP for Papineau, during

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in the House of Commons, shouted out the words "

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" when

Peter Kent James Peter Kent (born July 27, 1943) is a former Canadian journalist and former politician who served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for the riding of Thornhill from 2008 to 2021. He served as Minister of the Environment in the 28t ...

, the Conservative Environment Minister, criticized NDP environment critic Megan Leslie for not attending the

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, despite the government banning all opposition MPs from joining Canada's delegation. Later on, when Justin Trudeau was prime minister, another incident occurred on May 4, 2022, when Conservative MP John Brassard accused Trudeau of "unparliamentary language" and "dropping an F-bomb" during a heated debate in Question Period. Upon leaving the chamber, Trudeau was asked by reporters to comment on the allegations; in an apparent reference to his father's response to the Fuddle Duddle controversy, he said, "what is the nature of your thoughts, gentlemen, when you say — when you move your lips in a particular way?" Reporting the results of the

2015 Canadian federal election The 2015 Canadian federal election held on October 19, 2015, saw the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, win 184 seats, allowing it to form a majority government with Trudeau becoming the next prime minister. The election was held to elect m ...

, the ''

Toronto Sun The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices is located at Postmedia Place i ...

'' newspaper front cover headline was "Fuddle Duddle" in response to the Justin Trudeau Liberal majority outcome.

References

External links