Canada’s Trudeau wins leadership of Liberal Party

CANADA’S glamorous rising political star, Justin Trudeau, last night won captured the leadership of the Liberal Party, to begin the task of contesting seven years of Conservative rule.

The 41-year-old is the son of the swashbuckling former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.

He campaigned largely on a message of hope, and said detailed policy pronouncements will come later, ahead of a federal election due in 2015.

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“What Justin Trudeau is benefiting from is probably having the right message at the right times in terms of a swing back to less hyperbole and negativism,” said Nik Nanos of polling firm Nanos Research.

Mr Trudeau is the Liberals’ seventh leader in the last decade, including two interim bosses, compared with just two leaders between 1919 and 1958.

In the 2011 election, the Liberals fell to third place for the first time, behind the Conservatives on the right and the New Democrats on the left.

Mr Trudeau, a former teacher, is 12 years younger than prime minister Stephen Harper and 17 years younger than Thomas Mulcair, leader of the NDP.

Mr Trudeau favours legalisation of marijuana.

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