Reporters accompanying Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Japan were surprised to learn there would be no official business Wednesday so he and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau could celebrate their eleventh wedding anniversary.
But to anyone who has followed the couple’s story, it is no shock that Trudeau would set aside a full day of his five-day overseas itinerary for some anniversary pampering.
“I call him my prince, because he treats me like a princess,” Grégoire Trudeau told Maclean’s before their 2005 wedding. “He really went out of his way,” she said of his 2004 proposal made on bended knee. “There were candles and rose petals everywhere. I felt like a princess.”
Trudeau said the decision to take his wife to a luxurious country inn Wednesday — despite the fact their actual anniversary is not until Saturday — reflected his commitment to a healthy marriage.
“This is the kind of work-life balance that I’ve often talked about as being essential in order to be able to be in service of the country with all one’s very best, and that’s certainly something I’m going to continue to make sure we do,” he told reporters in Tokyo.
He added that Tuesday’s schedule, which began with a morning visit to a Shinto shrine and included meetings with auto executives and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had been a full one.
On Thursday he heads to Ise-Shima, about 300 kilometres southwest of Tokyo, for the two-day G7 leaders summit. He flies back to Canada Friday and is set to address the federal Liberal party convention in Winnipeg on Saturday.
The inn Trudeau booked for the anniversary is an hour’s drive from the G7 summit site and features private hot spring baths and sea views. Trudeau said the stay would be at his expense.
On social media, some questioned the need for a break two days into one of his most important foreign trips.
Reporters accompanying him asked about the expense of staff being idle. An informal online poll by Maclean’s asked readers, “Have you ever taken a day off to celebrate your wedding anniversary?” By late Tuesday afternoon, nearly two-thirds of respondents said no.
But to others, the anniversary break is another chapter in the story of a prime minister with all the right moves. “Oh that prime minister of yours, making all the ladies swoon, doing the right thing,” Katie Reynolds said when informed of Trudeau’s anniversary break. Reynolds is speakers bureau manager with the Seattle-based Gottman Institute, which offer couples therapy.
Darren Wilk, certified as a master therapist by the Gottman Institute, said Trudeau is using his platform as prime minister to send a message about the importance of honouring marriage.
“Obviously we have a modern man concept going on today. Hockey players will miss an NHL playoff game for the birth of their child. We’ve got a new man that’s emerging,” said Wilk, who practises in Vancouver.
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Trudeau says taking day off from Japan trip for anniversary about ‘work-life balance
Originally Posted by Guy4123
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