Topic: Justin Trudeau: 'I will be the prime minister of all Canadians' - page 2. (Read 1178 times)

Liberals win landslide fighting Tory attacks with optimism, energy

Tale of 2 Trudeaus

The 43-year-old Trudeau is the first son of a prime minister to become a prime minister. He will follow in his father's footsteps, moving his young family into 24 Sussex Dr.

The Trudeau political legacy has been both historic and polarizing, with Pierre Elliott Trudeau bringing in policies of bilingualism, multiculturalism and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that some consider core Canadian values. But there is also the lingering resentment over controversial policies in Western Canada and Quebec, including the National Energy Program and invoking the War Measures Act.

Charm and charisma are also part of the Trudeau family legacy.

Alex Marland, a political scientist at Memorial University in St. John's, said this campaign was driven by personality politics and the "celebritization" of leaders over more substantive issues.

"Despite the campaign's extraordinary length, we heard relatively little about the finer details of political parties' platforms, or about their potential cabinet members or candidates," he said.

He called it "telling" that Trudeau was not targeted by an onslaught of personal attack ads to counter his surge in the final days of the campaign.

"I suspect that this is because of many Canadians' para-social attachment to Justin Trudeau, who has grown up in the public eye, and who is charismatic. How else to explain why the Conservatives or NDP did not release a last-minute advertising campaign that provokes fear on the scale that we have seen in the past?"

The Liberal comeback is a rebound from the worst defeat in the party's history, in the May 2, 2011, federal election. The party finished in third place, with only 19 per cent of the vote and 34 seats.

Trudeau, a former high school teacher, was first elected in 2008 in the riding of Papineau. The father of three becomes the second-youngest Canadian prime minister in history, after Joe Clark, who was 40.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-trudeau-liberal-major-1.3278681
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Congrats the legacy continues