In conversation with Margaret Trudeau

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/04/2015 (4013 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Margaret Trudeau is certainly no stranger to the spotlight. At age 22, she married prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and the country speculated about the almost 30-year age gap between the pair. At 66, her age is once again centre stage with the publication of her new book, The Time of Your Life, a manifesto of sorts for women entering their “golden years.” In it, Trudeau writes about love, money, health and children, and how to deal with moving forward into old age.

On the phone from a fundraising Walk for Water (she is the honorary president of WaterAid Canada, a non-profit that helps take clean water to poor countries), she talked to the Free Press about her book, motherhood and the upcoming federal election.

 

FP: To start, what is your book about?

A: The title is The Time of Your Life: Choosing a Joyful and Vibrant Future. The most important part in that subtitle is “choosing.” What I experienced when I started talking to my friends, when I started thinking about this book, I realized that we have a very vague notion of what our future is going to look like… I’m putting out some choices. I’ve talked to a lot of different women and have wonderful stories from friends on life-changing things that they’ve gone through, and lots and lots of experts on our health, our fitness, our community, where we want to live, our money — that’s a bad chapter because we’re all scared about our money. It’s just raising all the questions and putting attention on making some kind of a plan for our future.

 

FP: What was the catalyst for this book?

A: Three things happened. My darling mum passed away after a long, peaceful life — not from illness, it was old age — and I suddenly felt very orphaned and untethered. My closest friend of 40 years, I now visit her in a home; she has quite serious Alzheimer’s. I didn’t think that would happen to me and my friends yet! The third thing was that I lost some of my own agility and stamina and endurance… I suddenly felt very frail myself, and I thought I better look at what’s lying ahead.

 

FP: How is the book informed by your own motherhood?

A: Well, every page: That’s who I am; mother and grandmother now. It’s always about, for me, nurturing and questions and finding ways of living properly and living well. I like to be a role model to my grown children, to my grandchildren and be able to participate in their lives. Everything you do reflects it; it’s like leaving a legacy to your children that matters.

 

FP: As your son, Justin, prepares to run in next fall’s federal election, in what ways does he remind you of your first husband?

A: Very few, no question about that. He’s my son, too, and Justin is his own person. His life has been at his father’s side for 30 years, and his father was an extraordinary teacher and a patient, patient man with the children. So he had extreme benefits, not only of experience but of education, from Pierre, but Justin and Pierre are not that similar.

 

FP: Do you have advice for Canadian women on how to go through this period of their lives?

A: The first thing is to get to know themselves really well. Start dealing with becoming the best you can possibly be in your golden years. Once you start from there, you can have the life you’re meant to have.

 

 

FP: Are women able to explore that more deeply during this period of their lives?

A: Oh, yes. We have unharnessed power and influence. We have a strong voice; we have the numbers that can change the political future in Canada on every level.

 

FP: Is Canada ready for a female prime minister?

A: Oh, of course — I just don’t see one running yet! Women have a strong role, and I’m heartened by Hillary Clinton’s example.

 

FP: How did your early life with Pierre inform this book?

A: Everything in your life brings you here, and that’s one of the things I say in my book. We have experiences, we’ve raised children, we’ve been divorced… I’ve been through heaven and hell in my life, and now it’s my turn to be free, my turn to make decisions based on who we are, what we want to do and how we want to do it. We no longer have the huge responsibility of raising our children and working. Everything I’ve been through (informs the book), including my marriage — most importantly, I suppose, because it went and put the spotlight on me, my marriage to Pierre.

 

FP: How does it affect you, hearing things about Justin and your late husband in the press?

A: Bullying — it’s what any mother feels when our children are bullied. It’s a way of politics that the Liberal party does not condone. I think the game should be played honestly and openly and be about what you stand for, not attack ads. They’re so silly anyways, but they’re bullying, no question.