Secret Ceremony

By say, August.

Pierre Trudeau was behaving strangely indeed. At a Toronto fund-raising dinner, he delivered a speech on women's rights--a subject that had not overly concerned Canada's bachelor Prime Minister in the past. The next morning, during his regular Thursday Cabinet meeting in Ottawa, he announced that he was taking a few days off to go skiing. The news surprised the ministers, since Trudeau had always been so sensitive about his personal life that he did not even disclose weekend plans to his closest associates.

Later in the day, a news flash from Vancouver, B.C., explained everything. In a simple Roman Catholic ceremony attended only by the immediate families and one aide, Trudeau, a well-tended 51, took as his bride Margaret Sinclair, 22, a slim, beautiful brunette who is the daughter of former Fisheries Minister James Sinclair.

Trudeau met Margaret three years ago at a Club Mediterranee resort in Tahiti. In March 1968, while he was campaigning in Vancouver for the Liberal Party leadership, Margaret stepped from a crowd of admirers and planted kisses on his cheeks. Her act started the craze that saw Canada's future Prime Minister kissed from coast to coast during the campaign. It also renewed their friendship. After graduating from British Columbia's Simon Eraser University with a major in sociology. Margaret in late 1969 moved to Ottawa, where she took a government job as a researcher in unemployment problems: that is a subject that haunts her new husband, since Canada's jobless rate has risen to 8%. She often joined Trudeau for private dinners.

Even so, their names were not linked romantically, perhaps because Trudeau was also squiring so many other women. He brought Barbra Streisand to Ottawa and waved to her from the floor of the House of Commons. Last August, Margaret returned to Vancouver and began perfecting her French. An Anglican, she also took instruction to become a Catholic. "She went into it cold-bloodedly, knowing exactly what she was doing," said her mother.

The wedding preparations were made in great secrecy. Margaret's four sisters were asked to come home on the pretense that a family portrait was to be taken. The priest and registry-office workers were pledged to secrecy. A photographer was engaged to take wedding pictures of "a gentleman from France named Pierre Mercier." Meanwhile, Trudeau invited his brother Charles and family to join him aboard his JetStar for a skiing holiday. Trudeau's invalid mother knew of the marriage but remained at home in Montreal.

After a double-ring ceremony, Trudeau and his bride went to a small reception at the Capilano Country Club in Vancouver, then were driven off in an unmarked police car for a few days of skiing at the Sinclairs' lodge on Whistler Mountain outside Vancouver.

Reaction to the Prime Minister's marriage was mostly favorable. Would Trudeau's departure from the ranks of the swinging singles cost him votes--especially among the ladies? Not necessarily. With rumors of a fall election circulating in Ottawa, it would not hurt at the polls if Mrs.Trudeau were pregnant by, say, August.

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