Although he has been gone these many years, some people think that Pierre Trudeau has one last spectacular political act left to perform. Sure, that sounds dramatic but if his son, 42-year-old Justin Pierre James Trudeau, runs and is elected Liberal leader, it will be almost entirely because of the PET legend. Until recently, a Trudeau candidacy was not taken seriously. Most people put their money on Toronto Rosedale MP Bob Rae, not withstanding the left over liability of the ill-fated Ontario NDP government. But that was before the dynamic Thomas Mulcair became leader of the national NDP and raised the spectre of an NDP federal government That would leave the Liberals in a lengthening dark night as Canada’s irrelevant party. In her column in the Toronto Star, the astute and well-followed pundit Chantel Hebert calls Trudeau the younger the rock star of this Parliament.. Never mind that some snidely say Justin has his father’s name and someone else’s brain. In a leadership vote where anyone who signs up as a Liberal supporter will have a say, he would be a formidable contender. Hebert goes on to say that a Trudeau-Rae tilt “could pit the hearts of many Liberal loyalists against their reason.” She says that more than a few Liberals would feel that losing on a Trudeau ticket would at least offer the party the grace of dying with dignity.
