Trudeau wins nomination

MONTREAL–There will be a whiff of political royalty in the next federal election after Liberals from the Montreal riding of Papineau picked Justin Trudeau to try to win back the seat from the Bloc Québécois.

Trudeau, the eldest son of former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, won a first-ballot victory over two opponents to represent the multicultural riding, which had been a traditional Liberal stronghold until the 2006 election. The nomination contest pitted Canada's most famous school teacher, 35, against Mary Deros, a popular city councillor and Basilio Giordano, the publisher of a local Italian-language newspaper.

"I am carrying the Trudeau name, yes. I am also carrying my own name," Trudeau told reporters after his victory. "I think that what was achieved here in this process was to demonstrate that I'm not just a last name. I'm someone who has a first name and who's willing to reach out and able to reach out and represent people."

Trudeau took 56 per cent of the 1,266 ballots cast yesterday, picking up 690 votes to 350 for Deros and 220 for Giordano.

Trudeau was joined at the nomination meeting by his mother, Margaret Trudeau, Sophie Grégoire, his pregnant wife, brother Alexandre and a number of close friends. After winning, he accepted a telephone call from Liberal party leader Stéphane Dion, who offered his congratulations.

Trudeau was also surrounded by a number of veteran party workers from Ottawa and a well-dressed entourage that appeared to stick out in the crowd of more than 1,000 local Liberals from the Montreal riding.

"He's intelligent, very intelligent, and whenever I've seen him on television he has been very well thought out and shown great confidence," said Émile Bertrand, 78, who showed up to support Trudeau and who said he also campaigned for his father.

Trudeau's brother, Alexandre, has tended to shun the political spotlight, but he showed up in support yesterday, darting around the gymnasium with his four-month-old son, Pierre, in his arms. After receiving word that his brother had won, he said with tears in his eyes that their father would have supported his eldest son.

"He would have shrugged and said, `I guess I can't control my son,'" he said. "My father would have worried about his son going into politics, but he would have blessed it, of course."

Trudeau has been dogged by critics who accuse him of using his name to leverage his entry into federal politics. Others said he would have been better suited to run in Outremont, the upscale Montreal neighbourhood where he lives.

In his own defence, he said he sought out Papineau's ethnic flavour, which he says is a reflection of the country's multiculturalism. He also wanted to fight for his nomination in order to silence those who say he was handed the Liberal nomination because of his name.

Still, he invoked his late father and his famous name in a speech to try to win over undecided voters just before they were to cast their ballots.

When Pierre Trudeau was elected as a Liberal MP in 1965 for the federal riding of Mount Royal, residents of the same working-class neighbourhood that now falls within Papineau's boundary, known as Park Extension, helped make it happen, Justin Trudeau said.

Pierre Trudeau became justice minister in 1967, and one year later he had succeeded Lester Pearson as leader of the Liberal party and prime minister.

"Times change and riding borders change, but what you were part of 40 years ago changed Canada forever," Trudeau said, referring to his father's crowning accomplishment at the head of the country, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"Now we are all children of the Charter, and of that we are immensely proud. So you can understand how fiercely proud I am to be able to say that your prime minister was also my dad," he said.

Papineau was a Liberal stronghold from 1957 to 2006, when former foreign affairs minister Pierre Pettigrew lost in the last federal election by 990 votes to Bloc Québécois MP Vivian Barbot. About 40 per cent of the riding consists of francophones. Of those, the vast majority vote consistently with the Bloc.

"There is no doubt that in the next election we will un-Bloc Papineau," Trudeau said.

He said both the Bloc and the Conservative government want to "divide" the country on major issues of the day such as the environment. In contrast, he said he wants to unite Canadians.

"And just who am I? I am Justin Trudeau. I am a man with a dream for our riding, our province and our country and I am a man who is able to draw us all together to achieve that dream."