Eight things you may not know about Justin Trudeau

Liberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau is the exact opposite of an unknown entity. He has been in the public spotlight since he was a wee child causing headaches for the security detail at 24 Sussex Drive.

Even people who don’t follow Canadian politics know Trudeau, and by now they know he is at least the candidate likely to be named the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada at a convention in Ottawa on Sunday.

By now, there have been hundreds of articles written about who Trudeau is and what he stands for. And, yes, you have likely seen just as much attention paid to perceived gaps in his policy book, the “rookie mistakes” he has made and what form the Liberal party would take under his leadership.

You know his name, you know his lineage and you probably even know about the charity boxing match. But here are eight things you may not know about the man likely to be named the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.

1. Justin Trudeau was born on Dec. 25, 1971 – Christmas Day. And his brother Alexandre was born exactly two years later. Justin, Alexandre (Sacha) and their younger brother Michel were the second, third and fourth children born to a sitting Canadian prime minister. The first was Margaret Mary Macdonald, the youngest daughter of John A. Macdonald.

2. Trudeau’s youngest brother, Michel, died after being caught in an avalanche while skiing in British Columbia in 1998. The following year, Trudeau launched the Canadian Avalanche Foundation, an awareness group that helps fund awareness and research projects.

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3. One of his first public positions was as the chair of Katimavik, a youth-volunteer organization created in 1977, during father Pierre Trudeau's reign as prime minister. The program had its public funding cut in 2012. Trudeau called the decision to kill Katimavik ideologically-driven. “It has the unfortunate ... and fatal flaw of having been created under a Liberal prime minister,” he said at the time, according the CBC News.

4. In 2007, Trudeau appeared in “The Great War,” a CBC miniseries that captured Canada’s role in World War I. He played Talbot Papineau, a Quebec lawyer and famous soldier who was killed in the Battle of Passchendaele.

5. Trudeau has familial ties to rival Liberal leadership candidate Deborah Coyne. This is no secret, but there has been virtually no attention paid to the pseudo-family rivalry over the course of the leadership campaign. Coyne had a 15-year relationship with Justin’s father and is the mother to his half-sister, Sarah Coyne. Earlier in the campaign, Deborah Coyne released an ebook about her background, including her history with Trudeau.

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6. Trudeau supported Gerard Kennedy in the 2006 Liberal leadership race, ultimately won by Stephane Dion. When Kennedy placed fourth in the second round of voting, he withdrew from the race and, with Trudeau, backed Dion. The wave of support is credited with shifting momentum in Dion’s favour.

7. When Trudeau decided to run in the 2007 federal election, he originally wanted to run in the Quebec riding of Outremont, considered a Liberal stronghold until it was taken by the NDP’s Thomas Mulcair in a 2007 by-eleciton. The Toronto Star's Susan Delacourt wrote in her ebook “Justin Trudeau: Can He Bring the Liberal Party Back to Life?” that Dion balked at the idea. Trudeau eventually chose to run in Papineau, a tough riding owned by the Bloc Quebecois. Trudeau had to compete to become the Liberal nominee against popular city councillor Mary Deros. He won the nomination and the riding.

8. Trudeau’s name makes an appearance in “Deus Ex: Human Revolution,” a dystopic video game created by Canadian developer Eidos Montreal in 2011. According to the National Post, the futuristic game surrounds the economic collapse of the United States and briefly addresses Canada as a growing economic and military powerhouse. Trudeau’s name is mentioned in passing as the country’s prime minister.