A Canadian Love Story

Margaret Trudeau was A Canadian First Lady .

Born Margaret Sinclair, in British Columbia, she was part of the Hippie
Movement, which advocated to give Peace a Chance against the Vietnam War.
Her delicate features and nature fit in very well with her flower child
image which continued throughout her whole life.

Margaret was a true flower child.
She married a 50 year old, charismatic, Prime Minister Pierre Elliot
Trudeau,in 1971, when she was only 22.

Trudeau was loved by women (including Barbara Streisand), and Canada had
the same Barack Obama atmosphere about him, called "Trudeaumania" when he
was elected Prime Minister, three years earlier.

He was busy and she was young, it could have been predicted that this
would be a disaster waiting to happen.
Margaret wanted a husband to stand at her side.
She married him she said, "not to be a rose in her husbands lapel" for
Trudeau was known to put a fresh flower every morning on his suit
jacket and dance the pirouette. He aged well, enough to capture this
young girl's heart.

Smothered by the sudden extreme changes in her life and probably
feeling very lonely, she smuggled drugs in the Prime Ministers suitcase
to use in her Ottawa, Prime Ministerial Residence. This resulted in
later being seen sporting a shiner under her sunglasses.

She continued to rebel and was seen drinking and dancing at Studio 54 with
lots of different people.
She also tore up a tapestry in her official residence which said "Reason over Passion". Clearly Margaret believed in passion and love which she felt Trudeau did not show her, after three children.

It ended badly for her. It was believed she had an affair with Geraldo Rivera, Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, Ted Kennedy, and was VERY friendly towards Fidel Castro.Everywhere she went, she caused chaos.

She lost her children in a divorce while continuing to jet set, not helping her Husband at all to get reelected. She wrote a book "Beyond Reason" to help support herself and discussed her life with Pierre in many an interview.

Their divorce became final in 1984.
Later on she authored another book called "Consequences".

During all this havoc, it was discovered she suffered from a bipolar
disorder.

Margaret then married Fred Kemper. She had two more children with him, Kyle and Alicia.

Trudeau also had another child, a daughter, Sarah.

Trudeau and Margaret loved their three boys, Justin, Sacha and Michel.
The youngest Michel, worked at a ski resort in BC's Kokanee Lake. He
tried to rescue one of his friends in an avalanche and was pulled into
the lake and drowned himself.

They could not find the body and Margaret had another break down, more pot
and another divorce.

She and Trudeau were seen walking on many an occasion after the death
of their son. She was at his bedside when he was dying and she was
still his First Lady at the funeral with her three boys.

Pierre Trudeau died in the millenium year 2000 from prostate cancer and
Parkinson's.

Fidel Castro came to Trudeau's funeral. He was the main event because
this was totally unexpected but not surprising.

He was the only one who paid attention to a little girl who also came to
bury her Father and stood quietly beside her Mother, Deborah Coyne.

Margaret became the honorary president of WaterCan, to help developing
countries supply good water and sanitation to the very poor. Her
personal life didn't change as she still continued drinking and was
stopped by the police for DUI.

However Trudeau's Charter of Rights and Freedoms Act saved her from
prosecution because police did not follow the right procedure and violated
her rights.

Margaret worked to help raise funds for the Royal Ottawa Hospital's
new hospital and to raise public awareness of mental health issues.
She sits on the Executive Advisory Board of the UBC Mental Health
Institute and is waiting to be awarded in May, the Society of
Biological Psychiatry Humanitarian Award for continuing to
find new ways to treat mental health problems.

Margaret is a survivor.

Realizing that you have a problem is half the battle but the rest
isn't easy either.

We wish Margaret well in all her endeavors and will always remember
this beautiful flower child, when Pierre finally presented his secret to
the world.
This couple was Canada's love story.
It shows love isn't a potato.
It's more like a hot red pepper. People are human.
Margaret went full circle. The death of her son Michel brought her back to
Pierre in his final days and she was able to pay tribute to her first love,
along side her boys.

This Libertango is for Margaret.

It was also played in a movie with Harrisson Ford