Meet Justin Trudeau, the man who is challenging the status quo

April 1972. The then president of the United States, Richard Nixon (the only one to resign from the position of greatest power in the world), honored at a gala ball in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, raised his glass: “Tonight we will dispense with formalities. I want to make a toast to the future Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Pierre Trudeau🇧🇷 He was referring to the son of the then prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, born four months earlier.

In 43 years, the American’s prophecy came true. Most. Justin Trudeau didn’t simply become Canada’s 23rd Prime Minister, but one of the most celebrated leaders of our time🇧🇷 Since the beginning of the race for the post occupied by his father between 1968 and 1979 and, later, between 1980 and 1984, the young politician achieved relevance across the planet – for combining attributes of content and form.

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Recently, he won the list of world’s most powerful figures (it is the 66th, according to Forbes) and, at the same time, the front of the list of the most stylish, according to an American men’s magazine. In addition to bold ideas, coherence and sense of humor – he jokes, mainly, with himself – Justin Trudeau usually leaves female audiences enraptured with his charm and beauty. Does anyone disagree?

The first positive surprise of his term, shortly after the election, in October, came when he fulfilled a campaign promise (something we are certainly not used to): divided equally the 30 ministries who make up his government between men and women.

And it didn’t stop there. He designated people who had affinities with the themes of his folders. The Minister of Science is, get this, scientist, winner of a Nobel Prize. The Minister of Transport, astronaut. The head of Democratic Institutions is a Muslim refugee. And so on. When asked about the mix of creeds, races and genders in the cabinet, he didn’t hesitate: “It’s because we are in 2015”.

Married for 12 years to journalist Sophie Grégoire, 42, with whom he has Xavier James, 9; Ella-Grace, 8; and Hadrien, 3; Trudeau took up women’s causes. During a 2016 debate on gender equality in Switzerland, he was applauded when he said: “We should not be afraid to use the word feminist. Men and women should use it to describe themselves whenever they want.”

And he keeps a constant agenda on the subject. At the beginning of last April, she was the main attraction at the opening of the Women in the World Summit, in New York, where she announced an investment of 650 million dollars for women’s reproductive health. “Promoting women to positions of power is not just a nice thing to do. It’s the smart thing to do.”spoke at the time.

Trudeau Jr. has also taken advantage of Donald Trump’s bravado and filled the planetary shortage of charismatic leaders. While topetudo lowers sanctions on the arrival of foreigners in the country and fights for the construction of a border wall, the Canadian announced to Parliament, in February this year, that he will continue to accept refugees in his country – the number of people requesting expatriation from the borders of the United States more than doubled between 2015 and 2016.

To reinforce the idea, Trudeau even personally went to the Quebec airport to receive a plane with 150 Syrians, hug them and say that in his country they are safe.

IN THE CRADLE OF POWER

Justin’s parents, Pierre Trudeau (who died in 2000, aged 81) and Margaret Sinclair, 69, met while vacationing in Tahiti (yes, they’re the glamorous type) in 1967. Minister of Justice at the time , 29 years older, playboy fame, ex-boyfriend of Barbra Streisand, he had to fight to conquer the girl, daughter of a traditional and wealthy Canadian family.

In 1971, they got married in secret, in front of only 13 guests, to lose the media, which started a wild race after couples formed by politicians and celebrities. Three children were born to the union: Justin, in 1971, Alexander, Sacha, in 1973, and Michael, in 1975.

Young and beautiful, Margaret liked to make an impact. She appeared at a White House gala dinner wearing a knee-length skirt when the occasion called for a long one. Scandal. On another occasion, during an official event in Venezuela, she left the speech aside and decided to honor the local first lady by singing a song (years later she admitted that shortly before the party she had ingested peyote, a tea with a hallucinogenic effect). Another scandal.

Just as they got married, they separated: secretly. The end of the union only became news when Margaret went to a Rolling Stones concert in Canada and started to follow the band’s tour. Rumor had it she was having an affair with Mick Jagger. Only recently did the truth come out: the affair was with Ron Wood, who confessed the relationship in his autobiography. In the midst of all this, she even had a brief affair with Ted Kennedy and was taken to the police station for possession of marijuana.🇧🇷

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This thirst to enjoy life, added to a bipolar disorder diagnosed years later, meant that the father had custody of the children, which ended up being decisive in the formation of the politician Justin Trudeau. The distance left no apparent sequelae: mother and son are very close. As the eldest, he was extremely important when his youngest brother, Michael, died in an avalanche at a ski resort in 1998 at the age of 23. In addition to supporting parents, Justin led a campaign to raise awareness of this type of weather accident, which is relatively common in freezing Canada.

From the age of 6, the eldest son accompanied his father on business trips. Alongside him, he visited around 50 countries and had access to unique situations. The first dead person he saw, for example, was Russian leader Leonid Brezhnev. As a child, he was introduced to Queen Elizabeth II, whom he met again, already elected: “The last time we saw each other, you were much taller”, he joked, and in return he was presented with a rare smile from the monarch🇧🇷

Despite the routine of being the son of a head of state, growing up in front of the cameras and always seeing his personal conquests featured in the country’s newspapers, he lived with one foot in the reality of ordinary people: he went and came back by bus from his official residence to school. (the same one his father attended, a traditional Jesuit institution), even when he had to rush to be in time for lunch with a president or nobleman. “My father taught us to face problems and not run away from them.”

He studied literature at college and, after graduating, traveled with friends for 12 months. On his return, he resumed his studies and obtained his teaching diploma. For three years he taught French, Mathematics, English and Dramaturgy to high school students. He was a yoga instructor, snowboarding, tried boxing and acting (he even participated in the television series The Great War, far from being a public success). “To this day, when asked what my profession is, I answer that I am a teacher”, said the head of state to a Canadian news portal.

Trudeau still tried other paths: he entered the faculty of engineering, but dropped out after a year. So he took a chance on environmental engineering and for four years he participated in a Canadian youth education volunteer project. “I thought that politics would only happen in my life when I got older. old,” he says.

Read more: “We shouldn’t be afraid of the word ‘feminist,'” says Canadian Prime Minister

At the same time, in 2003, he met a classmate of his brother Michael’s, Sophie, presenter of a Canadian program and former personal shopper. She took the initiative: she sent an e-mail to start a conversation. She didn’t have an answer. They met casually again and, embarrassed, Justin asked her to dinner. NoAt the end of that night, he said, “I’ve waited 31 years for you. Will you marry me?” They never parted again.

Two years later, they exchanged rings and soon the children came. Every now and then the prime minister writes passionate tweets to his wife. “Justin has a way of looking at you that makes you feel like you’re the only person in the world, the most important person,” says Sophie.

IN FATHER’S TRACK

The first clue that he might follow in his father’s footsteps was precisely at his father’s funeral, who died of prostate cancer in 2000. One of the most popular politicians of our times, a member of the Liberal Party, was Pierre who led the negotiations for the creation of a constitution of the country, independent of the English Parliament. He was also the one who turned Canada into a bilingual nation, legalized divorce, regulated the law that allows abortion and decriminalized homosexuality.

For all this, he named a movement of fans: trudeaumania, in allusion to Beatlemania. The funeral mass gathered at least 3,000 people in the Montreal cathedral, including former US president Jimmy Carter, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Canadian musician Leonard Cohen. With his speech, Justin moved everyone. The oratory ended with an embargoed “Je t’aime, papa”.

Read more: Canada’s prime minister appoints equal numbers of men and women to cabinets

Effectively, Justin only started dabbling in politics in 2007, when he was elected to Parliament from a Montreal district that had no Liberal Party voting history. From then on, he knew how to take advantage of his image and social networks, which every now and then become congested with photos in which he appears hugging pandas or painting murals with the children, in pajamas.

In 2013, he was appointed leader of the PL. When he started the race for prime minister, he was ranked third in the polls. With a platform based on transparency, tax increases for the rich benefiting the middle class and investment in job creation, he turned the tables and ended ten years of conservative politics in the country.

Now, almost a year and a half after taking office, his popularity continues to rise, fencing with the economy, advocates for free trade, fights for marijuana legalization and transgender rights🇧🇷 If he were here, Nixon would see that when he raised that toast, he shot for a hundred, but hit the thousand.