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IT WAS NOT VERY LONG BEFORE THE unknown member of parliament became prime minister of Canada, and an epidemic of what was called "Trudeaumania"
swept the land. His magnetic appeal was Kennedyesque; the task before him was Lincolnesque. He has known
criticism and controversy as well as the highest of praise. Even the home in Montreal that he chose for his retirement from
politics caused raised eyebrows. The Canadian architectural critic Adele Freedman Wrote: "Trudeau’s Art Deco palace, designed in
1930 by the Quebec architect Ernest Corrnier is both a fantasy of grace and refined eccentricity and an Egyptian tomb". People
wondered how he could think of bringing up three small boys in a four-story museum situated on the side of a mountain.
In fact, this sun-filled house, into which Trudeau and his sons moved in August 1984 is in no way either a tomb or a museum.
Joyous and alive, it floats above Montreal, and it is hard to imagine anything more fun for three active boys than to swing down
on skis from snow-covered Mont- Royal, cross the street and enter their home, then shed their gear and run down the stairs that
lead to their cheerful quarters two levels below. Here Art Deco has been dismissed, to be replaced by wide, comfortable sofas
and chairs in a large playroom that gives onto a grassy courtyard. The decorations are the boys’ own -toys, books, posters,
a golden mask that someone brought back from somewhere, souvenirs, gadgets everything that three people aged fourteen,
twelve and ten would like to have about them. Each has his bedroom off the playroom, from which he can emerge -ski clothes
abandoned for bathing trunks to dash down a cedar-paneled corridor to the heated swimming pool, which sits across the courtyard
under its own high, vaulted roof. The pool is Trudeau’s only addition.
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