There’s never been a Canadian politician quite like Justin Trudeau. More public figure than parliamentarian, he’s a full-fledged celebrity that turns heads wherever he goes across the country. Wandering through the streets of downtown Toronto he prompts the kinds of reactions that would be the envy of any politician. “Did you see who that was?” says one woman waiting at a bus stop. “I think I’m feeling flushed!”
At 42 years old, Trudeau has written an autobiography, ‘Common Ground.’ And while some might say that’s a young age to be chronicling your life story there’s no denying Trudeau has had more than his share of compelling experiences, many of them played out on the national stage.
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It was on Christmas Day 1971 that Pierre Trudeau became the first prime minister since John A. MacDonald to become a father while holding office. He and his wife Margaret named their son Justin, but to the RCMP security detail he was known by the code name Maple Three.
His earliest memories are of sledding at Harrington Lake, the Prime Ministerial retreat. As he got older he traveled the world with his father meeting foreign leaders along the way. A glamourous upbringing to be sure, but as most Canadians know all too well, one filled with its own troubles.
“Ours was not a normal or easy life,” Trudeau told W5, in an exclusive interview with Lisa LaFlamme. The strain of public life proved too much for his parents’ marriage.
While he spent most of his teens and twenties away from the national spotlight, his father’s death on September 28, 2000, brought him to Canadians’ attention. His poised, poignant eulogy created a stir in political circles.
It wouldn’t be for another seven years until he was ready to give politics a try. After months of campaigning he won the Liberal nomination for the Montreal riding of Papineau. Electoral victories in 2008 and 2011 followed and on April 14, 2013 he became the leader of the Liberal party of Canada. It was a meteoric rise.
But the party itself has fallen on hard times. In his interview with W5, Justin Trudeau candidly admits that the decline began when his father was prime minister.
Now, Trudeau is also sharing stories of his childhood and his youth, of growing up at 24 Sussex Drive, of his parents’ divorce and of deciding to follow in his father’s footsteps in leading the Liberal Party and hoping to become prime minister himself.
