It was a visit that marked a turning point in Canada's relationship with Cuba, but Margaret Trudeau remembers the groundbreaking trip as one in which a dictator melted at the sight of her baby.
In some of the photos of Pierre Trudeau's closely followed 1976 trip to Cuba with Margaret and four-monthold Michel, Fidel Castro had a telltale stain on the front of his uniform, she remembers with a laugh.
"Fidel made it clear in his opening remarks that the parents were important but not nearly as important as the baby. In some pictures Fidel had a big patch of wet saliva on his uniform because he had come over early to cuddle the baby."
Thirty-eight years after that trip, Trudeau says she is celebrating the thawing of U.S.-Cuban relations along with the Cuban people, a move that was helped along through secret meetings held in Ottawa.
She remembers Castro during that visit as a "very warm and charming man - I enjoyed him."...That's because you were lucky enough to be the ditzy wife of Canada's Commie-loving prime minister and not a Cuban compelled to live under the thumb of the "charming" despot.
And guess what? Fidel isn't the first tyrant to evince a soft spot for an adorable infant.
No comments:
Post a Comment