{"id":72095,"date":"2016-03-10T23:30:58","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T04:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=72095"},"modified":"2016-03-10T23:30:58","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T04:30:58","slug":"gregoire-trudeau-michelle-obama-team-up-to-promote-education-for-women-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/03\/10\/gregoire-trudeau-michelle-obama-team-up-to-promote-education-for-women-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"Gregoire-Trudeau, Michelle Obama team up to promote education for women, girls"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sophie<\/a>
Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau (left) and Michelle Obama (right) promote education for girls and women through the Let Girls Learn initiative, headed by the US First Lady.
(Photo: Connect to Canada | Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON\u2014The meeting of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Barack Obama wasn’t the only mutual admiration society on display Thursday in Washington.<\/p>\n

There was also, it would seem, a budding girl crush of sorts between Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau and Michelle Obama.<\/p>\n

The presidential and prime ministerial spouses appeared to hit it off during Justin Trudeau’s official visit to the White House\u2014so much so that Gregoire-Trudeau even lent Obama a helping hand after she lost her balance at a public event.<\/p>\n

Gregoire-Trudeau, 40, and Obama, 52, appeared at the ceremony together for girls’ education, where both women sang and danced with a group of schoolchildren.<\/p>\n

As she followed Gregoire-Trudeau off the stage, Obama appeared to lose her balance, said Cliff Owen, a photographer for The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

She immediately got a helping hand from her new Canadian BFF.<\/p>\n

Owen snapped a series of pictures of an open-armed Gregoire-Trudeau helping Obama off the stage, and said there was clear chemistry between the two.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s like two 14-year-old girls … they were just joking and laughing and having a really good time,\u201d said Owen.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get the impression they’re going to sneak out of the White House and hit a few bars. They’re just having a really good time with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

So much so, in fact, that Obama introduced Gregoire-Trudeau as \u201cmy soulmate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve already gotten into trouble,\u201d she quipped.<\/p>\n

The day’s more serious theme involved an American project to help adolescent girls get a quality education.<\/p>\n

Obama told the event at the U.S. Institute for Peace that some 62 million girls around the world are currently not in school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s not just a number,\u201d Obama said in a speech to scouts and students. \u201cEvery single one of these girls has a story.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year ago, the Obama administration unveiled Let Girls Learn, a program designed to build on investments in global primary school education and to expand them to help adolescent girls pursue their ambitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know we can get the world united around this issue and change the fate of these 62 million girls forever,\u201d Obama said. \u201cWe can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Gregoire-Trudeau: \u201cCanada knows that for a society to be prosperous and more just and more peaceful, women and girls must be educated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd an educated young girl becomes an educated … mother or mentor or friend, professional. That makes for an educated society and an education makes for a more peaceful and just place to be and to grow in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, the women shared a laugh outside the White House as President Barack Obama welcomed the Trudeaus, their children and the Canadian delegation to the residence.<\/p>\n

Inside, the Obamas met the three Trudeau children – Xavier, Ella-Grace and Hadrien. Obama high-fived the two-year-old Hadrien, whom Michelle Obama described as \u201cdelicious.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With files from Lee-Anne Goodman in Toronto and Kristy Kirkup in Ottawa.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON\u2014The meeting of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Barack Obama wasn’t the only mutual admiration society on display …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":72096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[9402,4616,9759,2338,35,9758,2149],"class_list":["post-72095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-education","tag-girls","tag-let-girls-learn","tag-michelle-obama","tag-original","tag-sophie-trudeau","tag-women","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}