Race will be ‘one long Canadian highway’

Trudeau has also already ruled himself out as a candidate who would work to make any kind of deals with the New Democratic Party to defeat the Conservatives. “Listen, I’m running to be the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada,” he said, “because I believe in an option that is not polarized around the edges.”

Trudeau made only glancing references to his late father, though there were plenty of references to the kind of Canada that existed while the elder Trudeau was prime minister from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s.

“The great, growing and optimistic middle class of the last century created a big-hearted, broad-mind- ed consensus. And built a better country,” Trudeau said, citing the Constitution, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and an open immigration policy as hallmarks of that era.

However, he stressed that these were not Liberal party achievements, but Canadian ones.

“I’ve too often heard it said in Liberal circles that the Liberal party created Canada. This, my friends, is wrong,” Trudeau said.

“Canadians created the Liberal party . . . The Liberal party . . . was the platform for their aspirations, not the source.”

There were plenty of reminders of the Pierre Trudeau government in the room, including some of his former top cabinet ministers and senators from Quebec, such as André Ouellet, Marc Lalonde and Lucie Pépin. Lalonde remarked that Justin Trudeau is vying to lead a party that faces a “much more difficult situation” than the one Pierre Trudeau faced when he ran for the leadership in 1968. Now in third place in the polls and the Commons, the Liberals don’t have the keys to the prime minister’s office to hand the winner of this contest. “It’s a very courageous decision on the part of Justin and I’m very happy that he decided to make the jump,” Lalonde said. Asked whether the elder Trudeau would have approved of his son going into the political business, Lalonde said: “I don’t know, frankly . . . He never told me he didn’t want to have any of his sons in politics. But I think he would be very proud.” Trudeau had initially ruled himself out of the leadership contest, but started to rethink that decision last spring. He had said he worried about the Liberals trying to solve their problems by returning to past glories or searching for a quick fix from the top — precisely the kind of dynamic that has already started to take shape as he enters the contest. Trudeau had also said he worried about the effect on his young family. But his wife, Sophie Grégoire, escorted him to the stage and introduced him to the crowd, while his two children — Xavier, turning 5 this month, and Ella-Grace, 3 — danced on stage to the tune “Moves Like Jagger.” Trudeau’s younger brother, Sacha, was on hand with his young family, too, but politely rebuffed reporters’ questions. “It’s not my show tonight,” he said.

Toward the end of his launch speech, Trudeau said he picked Oct. 2 to kick off his leadership bid because it was the birthday of his other brother, Michel, who died in an avalanche in 1998. He would have turned 37 this year.

Trudeau told the crowd that the leadership race would be long, and he didn’t expect to glide to the finish next April 14, when the winner will be announced.

“This road will be one long Canadian highway,” he said.

“We will have ups and downs. Breathtaking vistas and a few boring stretches. And with winter coming, icy patches.”