OTTAWA (AFP) — Justin Trudeau, following in the footsteps of his father, the late Canadian prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, secured a place in Canada's parliament in Tuesday's general election.
Elections Canada, the national electoral agency, reported that Trudeau, 36, won the Montreal electoral district of Papineau with a 1,500 vote lead over Vivian Barbot of the separatist Bloc Quebecois.
One of three sons of Canada's prime minister from 1968 to 1979, and again from 1980 to 1984, Justin Trudeau swapped a teaching career for a chance to represent his father's Liberals in the House of Commons.
The Liberals were poised to remain in opposition in Ottawa, however, as the governing Conservatives were projected to form another minoirty government.
Papineau was won by the Bloc in the 2006 elections.
The elder Trudeau, a committed federalist, is still revered in much of Canada for introducing a charter of rights and freedom, multiculturalism, and opposing nationalists in Quebec who want sovereignty for the French-speaking province.
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