Justin Trudeau: A Bhangra-dancing, muscle-rippling Liberal PM

Given the crop of hopefuls in the race to succeed the still ‘hot’ occupant of the White House, it is just as well that North America can now look further northwards for some sizzle. Canadians are probably the most surprised of all that they have not only elected a Bhangra dancing, muscle-rippling Liberal as their prime minister but one who also bears a remarkable resemblance to an animated Disney prince, complete with wispy locks and limpid baby blues. Dynasts, good-looking ones at that, are not that thick on the ground, so the euphoria about Justin Trudeau is understandable. More so as the PM-designate has resurrected Trudeaumania, the term coined to describe the adulation drawn by his father Pierre Trudeau’s first victory 48 years ago.

‘Hot heads’ are a rare phenomenon in the topmost political echelons — as even a cursory survey of the Indian pantheon will bear out — so Trudeau is sure to leapfrog into the first bunch in that also includes his southern neighbours, Presidents Barack Obama and Enrique Peña Nieto of US and Mexico. That his good looks have not been deemed a significant factor in his party’s surprise outright victory is noteworthy. As is the fact that as he happens to be a male politician, the feverish enthusiasm in print and social media about his looks are not being censured as sexist either.