Justin Trudeau wins Liberal Party nomination

April 29, 2007



Justin Trudeau, son of the late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, has won his riding nomination for the Liberal Party of Canada in Papineau, Montreal, Quebec. To win he needed 634 votes. He received 690.

This is his first attempt at running for politics. His father was Prime Minister of Canada from the 1960s until the mid-1980s.

His two other competitors for the nomination were natives from the town; Mary Deros, a city councillor and Basilio Giordano, a former city councillor and journalist for a local Italian newspaper. Competitors for the other federal party's have not yet been chosen. According to reports Deros received 350 votes and Basilio Giordano received 220.

Trudeau will run in the 40th Canadian federal election, which must be called no later than February 13, 2011.

"I'm a teacher; I'm a convenor; I'm a gatherer; I'm someone who reaches out to people and is deeply interested in what they have to say," Trudeau said. "And people see that I'm not faking it. I'm actually genuinely committed to this dialogue that we're opening up, and this understanding that needs to happen in order to be an effective MP."

Trudeau does not live in Papineau. It is the poorest riding in Canada and the smallest. It consists of blue-collar residents.

The riding has a long history of Liberal MPs. In the 1949 federal election an Independent MP held the riding. Liberal Adrien Meunier was re-elected three times holding the riding from 1949 to 1962. Liberal Guy Favreau was re-elected once holding the riding from 1963 to 1965. Liberal André Ouellet was re-elected six times holding the riding from 1967 to 1984. Liberal Pierre Pettigrew was elected in 2004, he came in second to current Bloc Québécois MP Vivian Barbot, who won by 17,775 votes.

Trudeau, 35, is the second child born to a Prime Minister during his term in office to Canada's first, Sir John A. Macdonald, who had a his daughter Margaret Mary Macdonald during his time in office. He has a Bachelor of Arts of English literature from Montreal's McGill University and the Bachelor of Education from the University of British Columbia. He eventually became a teacher there.

He married French-Canadian television personality Sophie Grégoire on March 18, 2005. In April this year they announced they are expecting their first child. Since his youngest sibling Michel Trudeau died in an avalanche in 1998, Trudeau has been an active campaigner for winter sports safety. His younger brother Alexandre Trudeau is a journalist.

His father died on 28 September 2000 at the age of 80. During the state funeral, Trudeau, then 28, delivered an emotional speech which led to speculation in the media that a career in politics could be his future. He has also openly stated that he opposes Quebec nationalism. Trudeau put his support behind Liberal leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy during the 2006 Liberal Party of Canada leadership convention. Kennedy dropped out of the second ballot of voting and both he and Trudeau went on to support now leader Stéphane Dion.