It would take an inconsolable curmudgeon having a bad hair day, to trash talk Justin Trudeau's debut as Prime Minister.

It was a mixture of picture-perfect optics, rapturous public reaction and an almost ideal lineup of cabinet minister choices given the power to think for themselves.

For Stephen Harper, there was much to watch and wonder how things might have turned out had he been less aristocratic, acerbic and antagonistic.

But what's undoubtedly giving the former prime minister his most haunting nightmare is watching his ten-year legacy being unravelled by his most loathed political nemesis.

Just 25 hours after Canada's new prime minister took the oath of office, a modest policy reversal launched the Liberal government's anti-Harperization effort.

Reinstating the mandatory long-form census cancelled by the Conservatives leads a parade of government moves to give a hard-left-turn to Harper's ten-year lurch to the right.

Military missions will be ended, fiscal balance put into deficit, grateful Senators appointed, refugee floodgates opened, and economic protection sacrificed to environmental action.

There will also be a dizzying dash to turn Liberal firsts – be it enhanced openness, gender equality and aboriginal leadership – into a new normal that future prime ministers cannot easily reverse.

Of course, eventually, this week's rapture has to end.

Perhaps in less graphic style than his father, Justin Trudeau will eventually fuddle-duddle opposition tormentors and flip the bird at protesters.

After all, unmuzzling ministers, MPs, diplomats, scientists and bureaucrats is easy until they talk themselves into serious trouble. Then the gag orders start flowing from the PMO.

But that's future shock for a prime minister who will undoubtedly see his dark curls transformed into vintage Harper grey.

For the next week, month or maybe even longer, Canadians should enjoy this long overdue time out from partisan excess.

It's undoubtedly an audacious hope, but for weeks or even months to come, cynicism and bitter partisanship may have found a Parliament Hill to die on.

That's the Last Word.