Justin Trudeau will be sworn on Wednesday as prime minister – the position long held by his late father – as Canada begins a new era of Liberal leadership after Conservative Stephen Harper’s near-decade in power.
Trudeau and his Cabinet will officially take office at the ceremony Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m.
Trudeau is the son of Pierre Trudeau, who swept to office in 1968 on a wave of support dubbed “Trudeaumania”.
He was prime minister until 1984 with a short interruption and remains one of the few Canadian politicians known in America, his charisma often drawing comparisons to John F. Kennedy.
Justin Trudeau channels the star power of his father. Tall and trim, he is a former school teacher and member of Parliament since 2008. At 43, he becomes the second youngest prime minister in Canadian history.
His election signals a generational change that will also be reflected in his Cabinet. His ministers will be announced Wednesday and most of them will be between the ages of 35 and 50.
Trudeau’s victory should improve Canada’s ties with the United States. Harper was angered by President Barack Obama’s reluctance to approve the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas and it damaged relations.
Although Trudeau supports the pipeline, he argues relations should not hinge on the project.
Harper, one of the longest-serving Western leaders, fought hard to reverse the image of a Liberal Canada, cutting corporate and sales taxes and removing Canada from a climate change agreement.
Trudeau tapped into an appetite for change with a plan to reject austerity and spend billions on infrastructure, running deficits for three years to do so.
