Praise for Trudeau from the Lennons

The following article appeared on page 11 of the Globe and Mail, December 24,

Praise for Trudeau from the Lennons
By Donald Newman
Globe and Mail Reporter

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was dressed in black but Yoko thought he was a "beautiful person."

Yoko was dressed in black. So was her husband, John Lennon. Together, they spent 50 minutes yesterday with the Prime Minister, discussing "things in general."

Last week, Trudeau was too busy to see employees of the National Film Board, who will be fired next month as part of the Government's economy cuts.

This week, with the House not in session, he dismissed his principal secretary, Marc Lalonde from a mid-morning meeting, to receive his guests from the world of pop.

The visit was to have lasted 15 minutes. When it was over the couple donned their floor length black capes, talked briefly with reporters who had gathered out-side Trudeau's office, then swirled off down the hall to their car.

The Lennons, who returned to Britain last night, spent a week in Canada making plans for their peace festival at Mosport raceway next June.

If the Prime Minister recalled that the Government intends to lower the voting age before the next general election when he accepted the appointment, the meeting yesterday did him no harm.

"If all politicians were like Mr. Trudeau, there would be world peace...you people in Canada don't realize how lucky you are to have a man like Mr. Trudeau," Lennon said after their talk.

"We're just enthralled meeting Mr. Trudeau, he is a beautiful people," Yoko murmured, in her whisper like voice. "It gives us great incentive seeing people like him in the establishment."

Beneath his cape, Lennon wore what appeared to be a rather ordinary black suit, white shirt and tie. Yoko, with her large black hat almost covering her face, wore a clinging black dress with a V-neck.

"I like to wear black. I like to wear white too, but black is warmer in winter. All my white clothes are summer clothes. I like black. Besides, it looks better in the photographs," Lennon said.

The peace festival, with the motto, "War is over if you want it," will be held June 3, 4, 5. The Lennons and their supporters hope to attract hundreds of thousands of people -- along the lines of Woodstock pop festival in upper New York last summer -- to the site where high powered racing cars are the main attraction.

"We are going to invite artists, poets, anyone who is concerned with peace, to do his thing -- or something." The other three Beatles may also appear to perform publicly, "if I can grease them enough."

Lennon said his later meeting with Health Minister John Munro was to discuss the "health" of the festival, which he assured reporters would be "the greatest gathering of people ever gathered for anything other than war."

He skirted the issue of drug use and added that he had not sworn off using drugs himself "because I don't swear off anything. But I keep clear of anything that interferes with my physical or mental well being."

Told that violent sport is usually held at Mosport, rather than something gentler like a peace festival, the couple appeared undeterred. "We can change the vibrations," Lennon said.

Just how that was to be done was left in some doubt. With a flip of his shoulder length hair, worn with a part down the middle, Lennon led his diminutive wife away.

"We just play everything by ear."