Maggie Trudeau is a perfect human being. I love her, I treasure her, I care about her, I worry about her, and I am frequently INCENSED on her behalf.
Q: Wait, Nicole, who is Maggie Trudeau?
A: Okay, well, you can read this story if you want the Official Narrative.
Basically, Maggie was the gorgeous young wife of Canada’s weirdly popular Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and now her son, Justin, is our new Prime Minister. Do I care for Justin? Not particularly, but I AM enjoying watching him troll the fuuuuuuck out of the country. Maggie, however, is better than all of these jokers.
Maggie was bipolar, which was undiagnosed for decades, and dealt with hamfistedly and fruitlessly and landed her in a padded cell. She was beautiful and fun and a hippie and loved rock concerts and partying, and the media egged her on and then made fun of her and splashed a picture of an accidental bush-flash all over the country.
Maggie wanted her own life, and being the 22 year old wife of a 51 year old Prime Minister didn’t set her up for success. Can you imagine being mentally ill and married to an old dude and being the center of the nation’s attention 24/7? It did not go great:
As she has noted, Mrs. Trudeau did not always deal with the pressure wisely. Before giving a speech, which became “a song of love” during a state dinner in Venezuela, Mrs. Trudeau ate peyote. “Even in my addled state, I could sense the acute embarrassment I had caused,” she later recalled. After a visit to the United States, Mrs. Trudeau became infatuated with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who she found to be more sympathetic than her husband.
And it didn’t get easier for Maggie! Her youngest, beloved son Michel was killed in an avalanche, and she sank into a deep depression, which did have the benefit of starting the process of getting real treatment for her mental health issues:
“I had to go into such deep, deep treatments to get my brain health back, to get my mental health back, after I was thrown to the ground,” she said. “But that was then. Now I think we can shorten the time between diagnoses and recovery.”
The hospital also led Mrs. Trudeau into what is an improbable career for someone who spent most of her life trying to escape public scrutiny. After being persuaded to speak at one of its fund-raising events, Mrs. Trudeau said that she found that she had a talent for it and now regularly holds talks about mental health throughout Canada. In the past they have included mother-son talks with Justin.
And in addition to her 2010 memoir, she published a self-help book for older women this year.
And throughout all of this, and her divorce, the media veered between being supportive and being cruel and getting up her ass.
When Pierre Trudeau died (they were still close), a grief-stricken Maggie stepped out of one of the memorial services to be met by Mike “Fuckhead Corrupt Assclown” Duffy, who stuck a camera in her face and said, basically “this must be so hard for you, especially since it’s also YOUR DEAD SON’S BIRTHDAY” at which point Maggie burst into tears and fell to the ground and I screamed and threw things in the privacy of my own home.
And now, in 2015, she has a pretty good thing going. She has an amazing platform for her advocacy, she and Justin are very close, and some of Canada’s media figures regret making her life hell and are apologizing for it:
She was guileless, and we were predatory. Our stories were full of snide references to the “flower girl” our Jesuitical prime minister had brought home.
We behaved like Hollywood paparazzi. When she ran off to party with the Rolling Stones (who of us wouldn’t have if we’d had the chance?) we became night crawlers.
We hounded her. We would call every big hotel in Toronto, trying to imagine pseudonyms she might be using, using pseudonyms ourselves.
She landed a role in a film, Kings and Desperate Men. It was never released. We grinned.
She turned up dancing at Studio 54 (a place we’d never have been allowed near, let alone inside). We sneered.
She decided to become a photographer. We snarked. King Hussein of Jordan presented her with a full collection of Nikon equipment. We demanded to know if she’d paid tax on it.
I literally cried when I read that story. I fist-pounded the air. It was so freeing to hear someone take responsibility for what they did to Maggie Trudeau, even decades late.
Maggie is an honorary Toastie. She’s smart and strong and resilient and brave and I hope her life gets better every second until it’s over. Please put as many perfect photos of her as you want in the comments.
How did I never know that Canadian politics are so darn SEXY?
I mean, this is basically it for sexy.
But we have a relatively short history, so the Trudeau family makes a pretty good portion of it sexier.
True, but the most we Americans can boast in the last generation is… the Lewinsky affair? And that’s more gross and tawdry than sexy.
Whhhhhaaaaat. I mean you don’t have SEX exactly I guess but you have a pretty sexy President!
Our last two PMs were Harper (SHUDDER) and Chretien, who I kind of love, but was not sexy.
Seriously, though, nothing will shrivel your vulva quicker than Harper.
You forgot Paul Martin! Who was also not sexy, but he did have the job between Chretien and Harper.
Someone told me that apparently Paul Martin has loads of charisma if you meet him in person and mesmerizingly bright eyes. I think ladies of a certain age find him attractive.
Mila Mulroney came to my town when I was kid to cut a ribbon or something. She seemed very glamourous in a totally 80s sort of way.
A few years ago I was flying to Ottawa, and had a nice stranger-chat with the man sitting next to me on the plane. Asked him if he lived in Ottawa, and he said something like “Well, I used to.” I told him about my summer job that I was very excited to start– which was giving tours of the Parliament building. It was also maybe a day or two before the 2011 federal election, and I remember him speaking French to the flight attendant about that.
There was a family sitting a couple rows ahead who I overheard say they were just moving to Canada. At the end of the flight I heard a flight attendant say to them, “Did you know that the man sitting over there used to be the Prime Minister?”
I whipped my head to look at my seat mate (who as you have guessed was Paul Martin the whole time!) and he winked at me! I hope he was amused not to have been recognized, rather than disappointed that someone who was supposedly going to explain Canadian politics to tourists was so visually inept.
Were you in business class at least, or was he in the back of the bus with the rabble?
Yes, it was the first and only time I’ve been in business class! Ah, parentally transferred Aeroplan points.
I’m guessing Paul Martin was/is just a placeholder to you all? 😉 À la Kim Campbell or John whatshisname (in between 1980s!Pierre Trudeau and Mulroney)?
Pretty much!
There are PMs and then there are PMs.
John Turner, which I only know because growing up I was inexplicably fond of a videotape my mom had gotten for free off the Internet of an Ottawa??? performance of The Pirates of Penzance??? and they decided to throw some topical political jokes in there for the local crowd I guess???, so there in the Major General’s Song was “And I even know how long John Turner was Prime Minister….”
(Also we lived in Colorado and none of my family had ever even been to Canada at the time so it’s even more inexplicable that we had it in the first place???)
Yay, thank you! 🙂
That is weird, regarding why you had a copy of that. Maybe your mom thought they were talking about a different John Turner? I dunno.
There’s a list out there with the most attractive PMs ranked. Suffice to say the attractiveness runs out pretty fast.
We hide it under a lot of flannel and goosedown.
But when the flannel comes off, then oh my goodness, it’s off.
I saw her self help book in my library’s online catalogue (there is a waiting list). I plan on reading it even though I am not a fan if the genre.
I was so pleased to see the article about how badly she was treated; watching it from afar it was not pleasant. But amazing to see what she is doing today. Great story – thank you!
Can we have a Canadian politics open thread? Or are these happening in regular OTs and I’m missing them? I want to hear about what other Toasties though of the election results and the first few days of JT’s leadership so far. I felt disappointed on election day, but now I feel so positive and hopeful. If he does everything he says, then he’s doing almost everything I want!
I’m having the exact same emotional experience. I cried at Mulcair’s concession speech, but I’m pretty fucking excited right now.
Sunny ways and sunny days, my friend.
Did you see that viral post by a gov’t scientist about being unmuzzled. That gave me CHILLS.
We had a hell of an emotional conversation the other day when the cabinet was announced & sworn in.
I also have reservations about a Liberal majority, but have found my initial wariness overcome with optimism recently. We’ll see how it holds up, but he’s putting refugees and first nations women in positions of power, s Sikh in charge of defense, unmuzzling scientists, etc: it’s all pretty hopeful.
The Trudeau Metre reports that he’s already fulfilled 3 campaign promises and has 2 in progress, which is not bad considering he’s only been in office for 4 days. And the return of the long-form census brought with it 1400 new jobs at StatsCan! Here’s hoping there will be more funding and more vacancies in federal government libraries so I can get a new job myself…
YOU’RE CLUBBING RIGHT NOW AREN’T YOU
I WAS JUST GOING TO POST THIS COMIC. Dang I love me some Kate Beaton. And now I’m gonna watch some heritage moments and also never marry a politician.
KT Tunstall has a brilliant song about her, as such: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB2XZflBzuQ
I’m really chuffed to see that she’s getting a second chance in the public eye. <3
The press treatment of Maggie during the collapse of her marriage to PET was vile. She was publicly flayed for daring to have an independent sexuality. I remember when that no-underwear picture of her was splashed across every newspaper, accompanied by self-righteous, puritanical denunciations, laced with sniggering prurience. It was good to see that mea culpa piece, but it didn’t go nearly far enough.
I’m basically imagining this woman as the Canadian Britney Spears in term of media bear-baiting.
I’d say more like the Canadian Princess Diana.
I’m pretty sure that watching the Canadian press’s treatment of Margaret Trudeau, which was an extreme example of how society acts toward women whose sexuality they consider to be unacceptable, is how I became a feminist in my early teens. Maggie was awesome (and sexy), but you need to understand that at the time NOBODY was saying that. If it was a minority opinion, I never heard it. All we heard was how out of control she was, how unseemly her lifestyle was. It was not a debate. I’m glad public opinion finally changed at least a little bit about the “proper” behavior of women in the public eye.
“(who of us wouldn’t have if we’d had the chance?)”
I love how much of this is an admission of jealousy.
“We made fun of her for being awesome. We’re very sorry about that.”
“people should have told you you were awesome/instead of taking advantage of you…”
Linda Griffiths, now sadly dead, had an amazing one woman show called Maggie and Pierre. It doesn’t look like there’s any video from an actual production online, but here’s her talking about it: https://vimeo.com/75231267
I saw that show — it was wonderful. She really captured both Maggie as a person, and her role in the Canadian zeitgeist.
Thank you for writing this. My love of Maggie knows no bounds.
That is all.
She is an amazing national treasure and deserves much better than the treatment that freaking Upper Canada boys club of Canadian media gave her throughout her life.
One of the latest is the awful Jonathan Kay (editor of the Walrus) piece where he claimed deep insight into Justin Trudeau’s psyche, that he had mommy issues because Maggie “abandoned him” as a child, and that she ruined her children. (In same piece, father’s abandonment=NBD; mother’s= child is doomed to a life of failure)
Whenever someone goes on and on about how Justin Trudeau is benefiting from the notoriety of his name, I think of how the media treated his mother for years. And I think, you know, given that, it’s amazing he decided to have a public life of any kind. It can’t have been easy growing up in that environment.
Wow, I never knew her before, but thank you so much for sharing! I’m just really glad this didn’t happen in America, because as bad as the Canadian media treatment of her was…America’s would’ve been worse.
I had the pleasure of being her daughter’s camp counsellor at a riding camp when I was a teenager – really lovely kid, and Maggie came to parents’ day. I only talked to her for a minute (and I didn’t realize who she was at the time!), but she was very nice!
Canada: A Very Small Country and a Very Big Country all at once.
Well, the funny thing is, I didn’t know who the girl was (last name of course is from M’s second marriage), until she was looking through my sketchbook and found the drawing I had done of PET, and she was like… “Uh, can I have this to give to my mom?”
Seconding Aria_Maria’s appreciation of the Canadian awareness boost! Being a #murican (or a merkin, your call) may explain it but it surely doesn’t excuse my lack of knowledge pre-Toast, but a few months ago someone on TV made a joke about Tim Horton’s and I had the tingly sensation of getting it but not knowing why. Glad to learn of someone who seems free of toils and snares and is hopefully happy now.
Yay, thank you! 🙂
That is weird, regarding why you had a copy of that. Maybe your mom thought they were talking about a different John Turner? I dunno.
I hope she maintains a public presence here in Canada. After a decade of our version of Bush, we need to renew national symbols, find a sense of common purpose. She can remind us that we are not just a collection of economic interests, but a nation with a shared, diverse culture and history.
I love all content about other countries and their politics. I have no particular reason to have known about Maggie Trudeau, but I am very glad to know about her now.
Michel was not her youngest. She had two other kids after Michel, with her second husband.
She also hosted a morning tv show in Ottawa after the divorce for a couple of years.
I can’t stand the ridiculous hypocrisy around famous women: Diana, Rihanna, Portman, Kate, et al. Zero tolerance or respect for mudslinging reporters who all smoke pot and are divorced yet act all holier than thou. The transparent jealously and idiotic hand wringing is pathetic. Nobody cares, leave those nice people alone jerks.