Trudeaumania

Trudeaumania was the term used throughout 1968 to describe the excitement generated by Pierre Elliott Trudeau's entry into the April 1968 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election.

Trudeaumania continued during the subsequent federal election (in which the Liberals won a strong majority government) and during Trudeau's early years as prime minister.

Trudeau is remembered as one of Canada's most polarizing politicians and prime ministers, fondly recalled by many Central and Eastern Canadians.

Some revisionist historians of Canadian politics deny that Trudeaumania ever substantially existed, or believe that it was largely a media invention to promote Pierre Trudeau or sell newspapers, similar to the over-romanticized description of John F. Kennedy's term as Camelot.

Robert Wright critiques the persistent media myth of "the hipster Montrealer who drove up to Ottawa in his Mercedes in 1965,"[5] and Paul Litt, claiming that the phrase was made up by newspaper columnist Lubor Zink,[6] similarly views the phenomenon as exaggerated by supportive journalists and pundits, including Peter C. Newman and Pierre Berton.

When Justin's face was in the international press, he drew comments of a similar nature online as a senior Canadian politician who was unexpectedly young looking and handsome in the general public's opinion.