(Bloomberg Businessweek) — Clad in boxing shorts, jacket, and ankle-high athletic shoes, he slipped unaccompanied from the gritty north Montreal neighbourhood into the gym across from a highway overpass, gear bag slung over his shoulder. He’s 47 but as trim and smooth as an undergraduate. Jacket removed, he stepped into the ring and donned his gloves, an aboriginal Earth-and-raven tattoo dominating his left triceps.
The boxer, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, didn’t, in fact, come alone. His security detail coordinated his arrival in black SUVs, and his media handlers instructed TV cameramen where to stand.
This was less a morning workout than a bit of campaign choreography, part of the Trudeau brand of sex appeal. Reporters on the scene rolled their eyes because it was an exact rerun of a photo op from his 2015 campaign, itself an echo of a 2012 charity boxing victory that lit up his political future.
Eye rolling is an occupational hazard of political journalism, but, in this case, it’s indicative. Despite robust economic growth and an impressive number of campaign promises fulfilled (carbon tax passed, marijuana legalized, child poverty slashed), Trudeau—a left-leaning Liberal who galloped to an historic victory four years ago—is fighting for his political life as he faces reelection on Oct. 21.
His disapproval rating has hit 58 per cent, worse than U.S. President Donald Trump’s, and he’s tied in the polls with his far-less-known Conservative opponent. This is the man Rolling Stone magazine, following Trump’s inauguration, featured on its cover with the headline “Why Can’t He Be Our President?”
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