LETTER FROM MONTREAL

In mid-summer, wildfires relentlessly consumed Canada's forests, burning a record 15 million hectares – but it was another news item that monopolized the Canadian press and social networks. On August 2, 51-year-old Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and 48-year-old Sophie Grégoire, his partner since 2005, made their separation public on Instagram. "Sophie and I would like to share the fact that after many meaningful and difficult conversations, we have made the decision to separate," he wrote on his page, which has over 4 million followers, noting that, as parents of three children, they remained a "close family with a deep love and respect for each other."

A few hours later, the headline on the Quebec news site TVA Nouvelles read: "Shockwave in the community." The news was deemed important enough to be picked up worldwide, by the so-called "serious" press as well as the celebrity press.

The breakup of "Justin and Sophie" is both the climax of the "Love, Glory, Beauty and Politics in the Land of the Maple" series, in which the couple has been complicit for nearly two decades, and a serious hitch in the communication strategy that has been meticulously crafted by the Liberal prime minister since he took office in 2015.

In his initial bid to seize the position of Prime Minister from the Conservative camp, Trudeau fully embraced the power of social networking, much like a young Barack Obama had a few years prior in the United States. In just a few months, he became one of the most popular figures on Instagram.

In a study published in Communiquer, Revue de Communication Sociale et Publique ("Communicate, Journal of Social and Public Communication") in 2019, Kelly Céleste Vossen analyzed how the Liberal candidate used the concept of "intimization" – the flow of information and images between the private and public spheres – to forge his image as "Canada's Kennedy." In nearly half of the publications posted before the election, "his status as husband is highlighted, either through the appearance of Sophie Grégoire (29%) or his wedding ring (18%) or through the discursive use of the first name 'Sophie' (10%)," noted the author.

Grégoire, a former TV host from a middle-class family, added a more "popular" element to the bourgeois image of Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, himself Prime Minister of Canada (1968-1979 and 1980-1984). Between them, they embodied a young, charismatic and loving couple, who found their recognition on the cover of the American magazine Vogue the day after their victory.

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