Can They Stop Justin?

Liberals don’t easily forgive their losers. Even less those who rack up the worst popular support (26.2%) in the party’s history.

For some Dion won’t leave soon enough.

The race is already on to replace him. Line up the support early. Call in those IOUs right now. Have we got money?

The guy they all want in their camp, if he doesn’t run for it himself, is 37-year old Justin Trudeau, the brightest star in the Liberal firmament, freshly elected in Papineau riding in north central Montreal.

He could have waited years for something safer, such as Westmount, or dad’s old Town of Mount Royal or Dion’s Saint-Laurent-Cartierville.

Young Trudeau chose to do it now, and do it the hard way, beating the Bloc Québécois on its own turf. For 18 gruelling months he went all out, door-to-door, non-stop in Papineau, one of the poorest ridings in the country. Sweatshops, clothing factories, spaghetti dinners, he did it all.

He even helped struggling Liberals. Two weeks ago he was in small-town Hawkesbury, Ontario in a losing cause for Liberal Dan Boudria -- not the sort of thing to be easily forgotten.

The Bloc threw everything it had at him. Still he overcame.

He won. Hard work. Like the old man, they said.

He’s still going strong. Two days after his election victory, his Internet site was already up to date -- in both official languages. Parts are refreshingly frank.

He admits he once described nationalism as a concept ‘based on smallness of thought’ which pitted him openly against Michael Ignatieff who supports Quebec nationalism.

The Wikipedia site says Trudeau was an object of derision in the 2008 campaign blaming it on a video he made in which he kept switching back and forth from French to English in mid-sentence to emphasize bilingualism.

True. He sounded more like an old-time Blue Bonnets announcer: <>

Trudeau has a more serious problem. It’s money. He doesn’t have it.

The other potentials have millions or know where to get them. It costs money to go for the leadership. Like about $2 million.

Bob Rae has Power Corp. smiling down on him. His brother John is a vice-president. Plus the remnants of the old Jean Chrétien gang.

Michael Ignatieff inherited parts of the Paul Martin organisation.

John Manley and Frank McKenna have good friends on Bay Street.

Gerard Kennedy still has his old friend Dion, for what that’s worth.

David McGuinty has his wits and a plenty of brothers.

Brian Tobin and Dominic LeBlanc have bases in Atlantic Canada.

Every candidate has strengths and weaknesses.

Nobody is starting from as far back as Justin right now. So how far can he go, and could he finish first?