Margaret Trudeau's last breakdown
By Anne Kingston - Friday, October 8, 2010 - 0 Comments
Trudeau speaks frankly about drugs, men, and how she survived the lows
Peter Bregg/CP/ Reuters/ Photograph by Jane Heller
Margaret Trudeau is sitting in the living room of her Montreal apartment, chatting about the Prime Minister and marijuana. No, the former flower-child chatelaine of 24 Sussex isn’t time-travelling back to her days married to prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau in the ’70s, smoking spliffs under the noses of her Mountie detail. She’s vibrantly in the here and now as conversation veers to the government’s stance on medical marijuana. “I think Mr. Harper has told us we could grow four [plants],” she says. “I’m tempted to grow four.” She’s joking—or seems to be. Trudeau’s pot-smoking days are behind her—mostly.
Now a mental-health advocate, Trudeau is more interested in the role marijuana use played in her bipolar disorder, a condition she made public in 2006. A little grass gave her focus, she says: “some light and joy and delight.” Too much triggered manic episodes. She still indulges—occasionally. “I fall off now and then, but very, very seldom,” she says. “I’m too cautious now.”
“Cautious” was never a word used to describe Margaret Trudeau, who arrived on the national stage in 1971 as the ravishing 22-year-old bride of a debonair 51-year-old PM. Their unlikely union, which produced Justin, Alexandre (known as Sacha) and Michel, ended in 1977 amidst lurid headlines that the PM’s erratic wife had bolted to photograph the Rolling Stones. Margaret filled in the details in Beyond Reason, her 1979 tell-a-lot, which revealed her “long tunnel of darkness” during her marriage and her affair with an unnamed man later identified as senator Edward Kennedy. In 1982, a second memoir, Consequences, detailed dalliances with the likes of Jack Nicholson and Ryan O’Neal as she flitted between continents seeking her own fame.
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Pierre & Maggie: The untold story
By John Geddes - Monday, October 26, 2009 at 10:56 AM - 34 Comments
New revelations about the most fascinating marriage in Canadian history
There’s something dark, almost to the point of the occult, in the way Pierre Trudeau is often remembered. Scan across the shelf of books about him: titles refer to his “shadow,” the notion he remains “hidden,” and one even calls him a “magus.” The most famous biographical quote about him claims “he haunts us still.”Perhaps it’s all this gloom that makes the story of his courtship and marriage such welcome leavening in the tale. The dancing entrance of Margaret Sinclair, quintessential flower child, brings to the story a tie-dyed splash of contrast, occasionally sheer silliness—not to mention doomed romance, rare beauty and rock-star celebrity. No wage and price controls or constitutional amendments in this chapter. Continue…
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MPs and Mental Health Awards
By Mitchel Raphael - Saturday, October 24, 2009 at 11:29 AM - 7 Comments
The seventh annual Champions of Mental Health Awards were held at the Fairmont Château Laurier ballroom. Margaret Trudeau, seen below with son Justin, got an award for being open about suffering from bipolar disorder.
Also on the awards list were Defense Minister Peter MacKay (left) and General Walter Natynczyk, Canada’s Chief of Defense Staff, for their work launching the “Be the Difference” mental health campaign in the Canadian Forces.
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Heirs apparent
By Aaron Wherry - Monday, July 20, 2009 at 4:02 PM - 2 Comments
Video evidence of the talk between Catherine Clark and Justin Trudeau is here. Judging from the comprehensive, cross-section coverage in the Saturday Globe, it is terribly important that you see this.
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Justin Trudeau’s swearing-in ceremony
By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, December 1, 2008 at 9:56 PM - 1 Comment
Justin Trudeau’s one-year-old son, Xavier, was with his dad at the swearing-in ceremony and seemed to be able to wave on cue.
Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Grégoire, also attended.
So did his mother, Margaret.
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Video Gallery: Chatelaine Gala
By Jeff Harris - Monday, April 7, 2008 at 1:09 PM - 0 Comments
Jeff Harris goes behind the scenes
Cover models Debbie Travis, Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau, Monika Schnarre and more help Chatelaine celebrate 80 years at the Windor Arms Hotel in Toronto. Editorial director Lise Ravary explains why they don’t hire models under 25 and Editor-in-chief Maryam Sanati explains how Chatelaine was breaking ground for women — in 1953.
