Justin revealed his toned chest and his tattoo when he fought Canadian Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau
in a charity boxing match. This photo is from a poster for the much-publicized fight in
2012
Unlike most politicians around the world, Justin was happy to pose semi-naked for the cameras
The two politicians (pictured) raised eyebrows when they weighed in for their unusual clash in March 2012
Packing a punch: Trudeau (left) beat Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau at their boxing match in Ottawa
Getting used to victory: Trudeau celebrates being a champ after his successful charity boxing bout
The Liberals, beset by years of infighting and ineffective leaders, had their worst electoral defeat in 2011 when they came in third behind the traditionally weaker left-of-center New Democratic Party.
But Trudeau increased his share of the vote in his own district and quickly rose to become the hope of his party. He became Liberal leader in 2013 and has worked to shed the party of its sense of entitlement.
Harper's Conservatives pilloried Trudeau during the campaign as inexperienced.
But Trudeau tapped into an appetite for change and worked his boyish image to project an approachability that belied his privileged background.
'
He has an aura. He's very personable. People like Justin. He projects sincerity and interest and openness,' said Stephen Clarkson, a political economy professor at the University of Toronto.
In his memoir 'Common Ground,'
Trudeau discussed his turbulent upbringing. His mother,
Margaret, was 22 years old when she married the 51-year-old prime minister in 1971, and she quickly earned a reputation for partying with the Rolling Stones and at New York's Studio 54.
The couple had three sons but separated when Justin was six.
Justin Trudeau and his brothers were raised by his father. His mother battled depression, particularly after the death of her son Michel, Justin's brother, in an avalanche in 1998.
'
The truth is, my mother was very ill,' Trudeau wrote. '
She suffered a severe mental illness.'
However, he wrote that that
he grew up free of much of the emotional trauma that divorce can inflict on children.
Trudeau,
the second youngest prime minister in Canada's history, now brings his own young family to Sussex Drive, the official residence of the prime minister in Ottawa where he spent much of his childhood.
Married to former Quebec television host Sophie Gregoire, Trudeau has
three children: Xavier, eight, Ella-Grace, six, and 20-month-old Hadrien.
Like his father before him, Trudeau is sometimes compared to another U.S. president who rose to power at a young age, Barack Obama.
'
You want a government with a vision and an agenda for this country that is positive and ambitious and hopeful. 'Well, my friends,
I promise you tonight that I will lead that government I will be that prime minister,' Trudeau told supporters at a victory rally in Montreal, echoing Obama's campaign themes of hope and change.
Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said Trudeau generates the same excitement among his supporters that Obama did in 2008, along with
big expectations that will be difficult to meet.
'There is no doubt about it,
Justin is fabulous with people. He's a great people person,' Wiseman said. 'Barack Obama used to enter a room and it just changed.'
And like Obama, he said, 'There is a lot of hope invested in Justin.'
The Trudeau victory will
ease tensions with the U.S.
Although Trudeau
supports the Keystone pipeline, he argues relations should not hinge on the project.
Harper had clashed with the Obama administration over other issues, including the recently reached Iran nuclear deal.
WHY JUSTIN TRUDEAU WAS NOT AN AVERAGE LEADER IN THE MAKING
Justin and his father Pierre in Venice in 1980
Justin Trudeau was born on Christmas Day 1971 and is
only the second child in Canadian history to be born to a serving prime minister.
He is the first child of any former Canadian PM to be elected PM himself. However he isn't the youngest prime minister - Joe Clark took office one day before his 40th birthday.
Justin met his wife-to-be, Sophie Grégoire, when she was a classmate and friend of his younger brother Michel.
Michel died in an avalanche when he was skiing in British Columbia in 1998. He was just 23. Justin has one surviving sibling, Alexandre (also known as Sacha), and three half-siblings.
He proposed to Sophie, now 40, on October 18, 2004 – on what would have been his father's 85th birthday. The couple's first child, Xavier, was born on the same date three years later.
In 2007, Trudeau starred in a mini-series, called The Great War, as soldier Talbot Mercer Papineau - one of Canada's first Rhodes Scholars who was killed in the Battle of Passchendaele.
The same month that he appeared on TV as Papineau, he won the riding (electroral district) of Papineau in Quebec.
In 2011 he did a striptease - down to his vest - to raise money for charity. And
in 2012, he literally fought his way to victory over Canadian Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau in a charity boxing match.
During the brawl
he revealed that his left shoulder is covered with a tattoo of the planet Earth, which he got when he was 23. When he was 40, he added a Haida raven to the design.
In the futuristic video game Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which was released in 2011, Canada is portrayed as a super-power... and Justin is listed as its prime minister.
*Sources:
Global News and
NBC
Chris Dead Person@Papapishu
Salem Whit Trials@whitneyarner
Shayzi@fairycritics
Ahmed Bilal Wahid@ABWDXB
Mami@MamiMonroe
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