The scenes that took place in 1979, i.e. Trudeau leaving the House of Commons after resigning as Liberal leader, the news conference after he came back, and his being congratulated by the faithful after the news conference were all shot in the Centre Block of Parliament Hill on Sept. 11th, 2001. When cast and crew arrived that morning it was a bright sunny day, with Parliament Hill swarming with tourists. By mid afternoon the tourists were gone and Parliament Hill had been sealed off by the RCMP. Filming was allowed to continue inside the now empty building, but the RCMP would not allow any exterior filming.
Each hour of this four-hour mini-series was patterned after the style of a different, famous director. For example, the first hour was done in the style of 'Lester, Richard', who directed, among other things, the two Beatles movies A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965) Ciccoritti felt this style would help convey Trudeaumania, which swept Canada during Trudeau's first election campaign.
There are two unrelated Jean Marchand's listed in the credits next to each other. One is Trudeau-era Cabinet Minister Jean Marchand played by actor Raymond Bouchard and the other is actor Jean Marchand who plays Marc Lalonde who was Trudeau's Finance Minister.