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The opposition pounced. Much like the unnecessary “nannygate” dustup, they said, the request showed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his clan as out of touch with average Canadians. But the life of a political wife is hardly average.

It might be 2016, as the saying now goes, but gender norms remain the norm for political spouses, for better or worse.

First couples (are) often trading in very traditional gender stereotypes that work in terms of campaigning and appearances

“The gender dynamics of so-called first couples is fraught,” says Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, a political science professor at Queen’s University.”They’re often trading in very traditional gender stereotypes that work in terms of campaigning and appearances,” but which may otherwise seem out of step.

There is something so retrograde, so mid-20th century, about the pretty young wife of the prime minister being a literal object of analysis. In many ways it does raise concern about a return to “the days of political wife as ornament,” as then-Liberal MP and later deputy prime minister Sheila Copps lamented from the opposition benches in the 1980s. With the benefit of hindsight, she thinks Mulroney needed that staff, just as Gregoire Trudeau does today.

“In the light of 2016,” Copps told the National Post this week, “they’re not really valid because I think the role has only grown, with public scrutiny and with the Internet. It’s so much easier today to get ahold of party leadership, to send an email asking Gregoire Trudeau to appear, and if she doesn’t respond to say, a children’s charity, that could become its own issue.”