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Trudeau marriage is 'groovy'

Broadcast Date: March 5, 1971

The Trudeaumania bubble bursts as the eligible bachelor announces he has secretly married Margaret Sinclair, a woman 30 years younger than him. Twelve people attended the Vancouver ceremony. Sinclair's relatives believed they were gathering for a family portrait, while Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's aides thought the couple was skiing. On the streets of Toronto, women say the marriage is "great" or "groovy," but one says, "I was just hoping he would have called me first."

Trudeau marriage is 'groovy'

• The couple met the year prior at Club Med in Tahiti.
• Sinclair studied political science and worked as a sociologist in Vancouver. Her father served as a Liberal fisheries minister.
• When they got married, Margaret Trudeau was 22 and Pierre Trudeau was 52.
• They had son Justin nine months later. No prime minister's wife since Sir John A. Macdonald's had given birth while her husband was in office.

• They had two more sons Alexandre (Sasha) and Michel, who was killed on Nov. 13, 1998 at age 23 in an avalanche.
• At 71, Trudeau had a daughter, Sarah, with lawyer Deborah Coyne.

Also on March 5:
• 1844: George Brown publishes the first issue of the Globe newspaper in Toronto. In 1936, the Globe merged with "The Mail and Empire" to become The Globe & Mail.
• 1982: Toronto's Steve Podborski becomes the first North American to win the World Cup men's downhill skiing title.
• 1993: Sprinter Ben Johnson fails a second drug test after a race in Montreal and is banned from competition for life by the Int'l Assoc. of Athletics Federations.

Trudeau marriage is 'groovy'

Medium: Television

Program: Weekday

Broadcast Date: March 5, 1971

Duration: 2:25

Last updated:
June 12, 2008