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News Video Music Politics TV Movies Video Games RS Country More Justin Trudeau: Is the Opeth's Mikael Ronnie James Dio TRENDING Canadian Prime Akerfeldt: My 10 Hologram Plots World Minister the Free... Favorite Metal Albums Tour Justin Trudeau: The North Star He was raised in jet-set privilege but overcame tragedy to become Canada's prime minister. Is he the free world's best hope? By Stephen Rodrick Michael Kappeler/ZUMA Let's begin by synchronizing our watches. We are in the Eastern time zone. The legislative session is over, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is about to give his wrap-up press conference. The reporters trudge into the gallery, grumbling, as reporters like to do, about trac and editors. Someone gives the "10 seconds" signal, and Trudeau strides to the podium. He gives a nod and starts ticking o his accomplishments. The rst is self-praise for cutting taxes on the middle class and raising them on the one percent. "We've given nine out of 10 families more money each month to help with the costs of raising their kids," Trudeau says. RELATED Canada's Legal Weed: What You Need to Know Justin Trudeau introduced a bill that would make marijuana legal – but what will that look like, and what will it mean for the U.S.? It's strange to witness: He speaks in a modulated, indoor voice. His dark hair is a color found in nature. At home, there is a glamorous wife and three photogenic children, still not old enough to warm his seat at next week's G-20 summit or be involved in an espionage scandal. When Trudeau moves on to his feminist bona des (women and minorities make up more than half of his Cabinet), he pauses for a moment, but does not lose his train of thought. His words are coherent and will not need to be run through Google Translate when he is done (except if you want to translate his French into English). He talks about steps taken to deal with the opioid crisis and mentions the country's dropping unemployment rate. He uses the original Clintonian recipe on the crowd: "We're focused on getting people into good careers and helping families get ahead and stay ahead," he says. "But we know there's more hard work in front of us than there is behind us." Then he gives the press corps a high-ve. "The back and forth between the press and government is essential to any good democracy," he says. "When you're at your best, it reminds us and challenges us to be at ours. So thank you all for your tireless work." Where are we? Narnia? Coachella recovery tent? 2009? We are in Ottawa, Ontario, a mere 560 miles from Washington, D.C. And yet, we are half a world away. Join me as we visit a nation led by a man who wore a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy T-shirt on national television, rides a unicycle and welcomed 40,000 Syrian refugees with open arms. The contrasts between here and there are not just supercial. Trump is defunding Planned Parenthood. Trudeau is rmly pro-choice; abortions are provided as part of Canada's universal health care. (We know Trump's position on that issue.) Meanwhile, Attorney General Je Sessions is trying to roll back America's weed laws to Reefer Madness days. Over the border, Trudeau, who admits he smoked pot after being elected to Parliament, campaigned on legalizing it across Canada. Trump ditched the Paris environmental accord. Trudeau is urging American cities and states to work with their northern neighbors to cut emissions. The opioid crisis that Trudeau spoke of in his press conference? His government is fast-tracking safe-usage areas to cut down on overdoses, while America's opioid-related deaths have reached epidemic levels. And then there's Russia. Trump's son met with Russian nationals who promised dirt on Hillary Clinton. Trudeau's foreign minister is Chrystia Freeland, a Canadian of Ukrainian descent who is banned in Putin's Russia. "Our support for Ukraine, including militarily, is something that stands us very clearly on the 'Russia is an unhelpful actor in the world' side of the dynamic," Trudeau tells me. Justin Trudeau is trying to Make Canada Great Again. He is using, let us say, dierent methods. On a recent summer afternoon, Trudeau takes o his suit jacket and we settle into two ornate chairs in a corner of his Parliament Hill oce. His sleeves are pushed up, his tie blue, his shirt white, his socks festooned with moose. Trudeau reminds me of, well, Obama as he smiles and listens patiently to me droning on about my Canadian wife as if it is actually interesting. For Trudeau, listening is seducing. But as soon as I start asking questions, he snaps into place, admiringly forthcoming on his life journey and frustratingly on message when it comes to political answers. As we chat, he smiles and locks in with his blue eyes, but Trudeau, whose Martin Schoeller for Rolling Stone mother's side is of Scottish descent, swats away all Trump- baiting questions with a look that says, "Not today, laddie." He is always pushing his product: a kind but muscular Canada. I asked him why his country, insulated by two vast oceans and a superpower to the south, was increasing its military spending by $14 billion. Some of it was about Canada doing its part in a dangerous world. But some of it, according to Trudeau, had to do with the sheer awesomeness of his native land. "A Canadian on the ground in dierent parts of the world, whether they're a diplomat, an aid worker or a soldier, has an extraordinary, powerful impact," Trudeau tells me. "I mean, the image of Canada, the way people look at you as 'Oh, you're Canadian' – subtext 'not American' – 'but you're here to help, you're not here for oil, you're not here to tell us how to run our country.' " That was a Canadian burn. During the campaign, Trump talked of NATO being obsolete. Trudeau doesn't agree and is all about expanding Canada's inuence across the globe. Canadian forces are installed in the Baltics to deter Russian aggression, the country's largest sustained military presence in Europe in more than a decade. He tells me a story about Harjit Saj-jan, now his defense minister, but once a major in the Canadian military in Afghanistan. Sajjan was born in Punjab, India, and wears a turban. Trudeau recounts how an Afghan chieftain quizzed the major about his position, rst wondering if he was with the Indian Army and being shocked when he told him he was Canadian and in charge. "The head man sort of watches, he goes, 'Wait, they let a man who looks like you lead in the Canadian army?' " says Trudeau, who clearly loves telling this story. "Harjit says, 'Yes,' and the head man looks out: 'Maybe, maybe you can actually help.' " And that was a Canadian brag. Trudeau's skeptics have declared him "emotionally intelligent." This is Canadian for "the man is a mimbo." But that's not the case. Trudeau is the son of Pierre Trudeau, a 15- year prime minister and Canada's iconic 20th Century Man. There are things he should have learned at the knee of Papa, as he called his father. But sometimes Justin doesn't think things through. Upon Fidel Castro's death, he declared the dictator "a larger- than-life leader who served his Portrait of the Prime Minister with his wife, Margaret people," making little mention Trudeau, and their sons (left to right): Justin, Michel and Alexandre Emmanuel 'Sacha'. Alfred of the unseemly portions of the Eisenstaedt/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Cuban despot's tenure. On Canada Day, the country's Fourth of July, Trudeau's speech praised all of Canada's provinces, but somehow he forgot Alberta, Justin and his father's greatest provincial nemesis. Trudeau jumped onstage and tried to make things right. "Let me just start by saying I'm a little embarrassed – I got excited somewhere over the Rockies. Alberta, I love you. Happy Canada Day." But within hours, some Albertan politicians were saying the slight was intentional. He can come o like some modern dauphin; as a child, he traveled the world with his father, practically as a member of the prime minister's ocial envoy. He likes himself. A lot. (His critics call him "shiny pony.") Once, before a boxing match that would make or kill his career – more on that later – he was caught babbling Obama-like about his personal destiny. His wife, Sophie, grabbed his arm, looked him in the eyes and said, "Be humble." Sophie and Justin met in their hometown of Montreal, and Justin decided by the end of their rst date that they would eventually get married. Trudeau doesn't play golf; he snowboards. There is a real person inside him. A longtime dork, he used to throw himself down ights of stairs at parties for laughs. He went trick-or-treating last year dressed as the pilot, while his son Hadrien went as the prince, from The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. And he has a quirky sense of humor that doesn't score points at the expense of his enemies. Trudeau, who is the equivalent of a centrist Democrat, ran on returning an optimistic "sunny ways" to governing after the almost decade-long reign of the Dick Cheney-like Stephen Harper.

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