WHEN the Liberal Party came third in Canada’s 2011 general election, with just 34 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons, pundits began to talk of the impending death of what for more than a century had been the country’s natural party of government. The Liberals had been led to the brink of oblivion by a run of disastrous leaders, effortlessly outwitted by Stephen Harper, the Conservative prime minister since 2006.Now such talk seems premature. Four by-elections late last month bore out the Liberals’ recent lead in opinion polls. No seats changed hands: the Liberals and Conservatives each held two. But the Liberals saw their support surge across the board, at the expense of both the Conservatives and the leftish New Democratic Party (NDP), the official opposition. It was the strongest indication yet that the party had picked a potential winner last April when Justin Trudeau, the son of a former prime minister, was chosen as its leader.This optimism could yet prove to be as transient as it was when Michael Ignatieff, an academic and journalist, took over the party in 2008 only to lead it to its worst showing in history in 2011, losing his own seat. Yet Mr Trudeau...
via The Economist: The Americas http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21591184-are-good-looks-and-famous-name-enough-make-justin-trudeau-pictured-his-countrys-next?fsrc=rss|ame
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