Wednesday August 2, 2023 | NATIONAL [Updated 12:30 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau today announced on social media that they have decided to separate. They released the same messages.
They have been married for 18 years, during which time Justin Trudeau’s rise to great political heights has no doubt been a prime focus. They became engaged in 2004 and married in 2005.
Political public life takes an immense personal toll on the immediate families and spouses of those who have the courage to serve. The higher calling for one person in the marriage may not be share to the same degree by the other.
Trudeau long in the game:
Trudeau grew up in the home of Canada’s then prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau. As the eldest of three sons there was likely a lot of pressure (even if unspoken) to follow in his father’s footsteps.
Justin Trudeau launched his political career in 2007, when seeking the Liberal Party nomination in the Montreal riding of Papineau. After winning there in 2008 and 2011, Trudeau began to consider seeking the Liberal leadership. The decision, he wrote in a book in 2014, would ultimately come down to “a deeply personal private discussion between Sophie and me.”
Trudeau became leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in 2013 and with great political craftsmanship resurrected the federal party to a majority victory in the 2015 election. Trudeamania like the kind not seen since Pierre Elliot Trudeau was prime minister once again in the Canadian public consciousness.
Justin Trudeau, 51, and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, 48, have three children: sons Xavier, 15 and Hadrien, 9, and daughter Ella-Grace, 14.
The couple and their children are going on a summer vacation now for a week and ask for their privacy.
According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, Trudeau and Grégoire Trudeau have “signed a legal separation agreement.” They say they will continue to support their children and respect each other, as things move forward.
Marriage in the public eye:
Marriage has tough times for any couple, even more challenging when one or both of the partners are in the public sphere. If there’s any two people who can handle this with aplomb and as little negative fallout as possible, it’s probably these two.
The public’s responsibility in this load for a couple in the public sphere is to give them their privacy. In fact, politicians are held up, overall, to sometimes impossible levels of public scrutiny. As a society perhaps we should explore that impulse a bit more… what are we projecting onto others that we should examine in ourselves?
Next federal election:
Trudeau has said in recent months that he intends to run again the next federal election (scheduled for fall 2025 but it now might come sooner).
Just last week he undertook a significant cabinet shuffle including reassigning top cabinet minsters to other portfolios in planning for the Liberal success in the next election.
Trudeau in Greater Victoria:
Trudeau has visited the Greater Victoria area many times.
He was on the 2015 campaign trail in Esquimalt-Saanich-Sooke, visited Sidney Spit in summer 2017, made a transit announcement with BC Transit in July 2019, hosted a large Liberal campaign event at a downtown Victoria pub in 2021, and announced EV targets on the Royal Roads Campus in Colwood in April 2022 as well as meeting up briefly with the Canada Women’s Soccer team in Langford.
Trudeau and then-premier John Horgan met several times both in Victoria and Vancouver.
Trudeau has family (on his mother’s side) who live on South Vancouver Island.
Public commentary:
News of the Trudeau marriage split has been high profile and swift on national media today, as well of course on social media.
Pundits are wondering how long it will take for the marriage separation to be used politically against Trudeau and the Liberals.
- Don Martin, former host of CTV’s Power Play political newscast posted on Twitter today: “Let’s prove how different from the Americans we are and let the Trudeau separation become a one-day story without any partisan political cheap shots at what is a sad intensely personal issue.”
- Brian Lilley, a columnist for the Toronto Sun, said: “Trudeau and his wife are splitting. That’s the news. Sophie and the kids are not public figures. Leave them out of it. Trudeau and his policies deserve criticism, not his personal life.”
- Island Social Trends editor Mary Brooke posted in social media: “Marriage has tough times for any couple, even more challenging when one or both of the partners are in the public sphere. If there’s any two people who can handle this with aplomb and as little negative fallout as possible, it’s probably these two.”
Public statements:
Here are the two statements as posted online in social media by Justin Trudeau and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau in social media:
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