Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens to a reporters question during a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila
He’s younger than the next youngest leader by six years and nearly a full generation behind the 60-year-old average age of his Pacific Rim peers.
Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 43, installed on a liberal agenda at odds with the authoritarian policies of some other Asia-Pacific leaders, brought a dash of vitality to an annual forum whose most concrete outcome is usually a photo op of mainly middle-aged men in funky shirts.
Tall and trim, Trudeau exudes the star power of his father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, whose charisma often drew comparisons to John F. Kennedy.
President Barack Obama praised him yesterday after they spoke on the sidelines of their Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meetings in Manila, saying Trudeau was a “great boost of energy” for Canadian politics.
He also ribbed the fresh-faced Trudeau over how the responsibilities of leadership can age a person.
“The first call I made to him, I said: Justin, congratulations, you and your family look great, I know Canadians are incredibly inspired by your message of hope and change. I just want to point out that I had no gray hair when I was in your shoes seven years ago.
“And so if you don’t want to gray like me you need to start dyeing it soon,” Obama said.
Standing with Obama, Trudeau retorted: “So young, and yet so cynical.”
Recently seen in Canada trick-or-treating with his wife and young children, Trudeau is 26 years younger than the Sultan of Brunei, at 69 the eldest of the 21 leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which is meeting in the Philippine capital this week.
On the tongue-in-cheek online “Hottest Heads of State List” Trudeau ranks second, at 34 percent of votes, way behind the king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuk, who garnered 61 percent support. But he was way ahead of the next most admired APEC leader, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, who took only 3 percent of the vote. Rankings of other regional leaders stretched from No. 11, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, to No. 197, Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In Manila, slots to cover Trudeau’s appearance at a business forum were hotly contested by local reporters keen to see the APEC newcomer.
“Girls only have eyes for Trudeau, Nieto,” gushed a headline in the newspaper Philippine Inquirer.
“The Internet has found a reason to care about the APEC summit,” tweeted online publication GlobalPost, using “APEChottie” as a hashtag. Elaine Kurtenbach, Manila ,AP
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