Justin Trudeau

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Justin Trudeau
Trudeau endorsed Gerard Kennedy in the 2006 Liberal leadership campaign

Born	December 25 1971 (age 35) Ottawa, Ontario
Political party	Liberal

Justin Trudeau (born December 25, 1971 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) is the eldest son of the late former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and his wife, Margaret Trudeau. Trudeau has recently announced his intentions to seek the nomination in the Montreal riding of Papineau.

1 Early life
2 Entrance in politics
3 References
4 External links

Early life

He and his younger brother, Alexandre (Sacha), were both born on December 25. Pierre and Margaret Trudeau separated in 1977, when Justin was 6 years old. Pierre retired as Prime Minister in 1984.

Justin Trudeau was only the second child in Canadian history to be born during a father's term as Prime Minister; he was preceded by John A. Macdonald's youngest daughter Margaret Mary Macdonald.

Pierre continued to raise his children in relative privacy in Montreal. Justin studied English literature (BA , McGill University) and Education (B.Ed, University of British Columbia), eventually becoming a teacher in British Columbia. He is currently completing a Master of Arts in Geography at McGill University.

Justin Trudeau

At the state funeral of Pierre Trudeau in 2000, Justin delivered a memorable eulogy.^[1]

Justin Trudeau has been a campaigner for winter safety since the death of his brother Michel in an avalanche on a ski trip in 1998. In 2003, he served as a panelist on CBC Radio's Canada Reads series, where he championed The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston.

On May 28, 2005, Justin Trudeau married Sophie Grégoire, a former model and Quebec television host.

He is one of several children of former Prime Ministers who have become Canadian media personalities. The others are Ben Mulroney, Catherine Clark, and Justin's younger brother, Alexandre. Though Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney were longtime foes, this rivalry did not carry over to their sons, as Ben Mulroney was a guest at Justin Trudeau's wedding.

On 17 September 2006, Justin hosted a rally in Ramsden Park in Toronto, calling for Canadian participation in the Darfur crisis.

On 25 October 2006, Trudeau appeared on CTV's Canada AM. Asked about what he thought of Quebecers asking for national recognition, he replied that nationalism today as a general concept is "based on a smallness of thought.”^[2] His comments were seen as a criticism of Michael Ignatieff's push to recognize Quebec as a nation.

During the 2006 Liberal Party of Canada leadership convention, Trudeau endorsed Gerard Kennedy.^[3] When Kennedy dropped off after the 2nd ballot, Trudeau went with him to support former Environment Minister--and ultimate winner--Stephane Dion.

Entrance in politics

Trudeau (left) is seated next to Darfurian refugee Tragi Mustafa, and an unknown female event organiser is seated next to Roméo Dallaire (right)

In January 2007, rumours were getting persistent about Justin Trudeau entering politics, especially after being highly active in the 2006 Liberal convention.^[4] It was rumoured that Trudeau was going to run in the Montreal Outremont riding which is a traditional Liberal stronghold, after former Minister of Transport Jean Lapierre resigned from the House of Commons to become a political commentator.^[5] However, on February 22, 2007, he announced that he would seek the nomination in the Montreal federal riding of Papineau.^[6]

CBC Television announced in April 2007 that Justin Trudeau would appear in the two-part miniseries, The Great War, portraying Talbot Mercer Papineau (1883-1917). Papineau was killed in action in Ypres, Belgium and was among Canada's first Rhodes Scholars.

Cooincidentally, Trudeau is running for the Liberal nomination in the very riding named after Talbot Mercer Papineau's lineage: this includes his grandfather, seigneur Joseph Papineau (1752-1841) and Talbot's father, reformist Patriote Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786-1871).