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Canada election: Trudeau hails Liberal win as Harper steps down as leader – live Canada election: Trudeau hails Liberal win as Harper steps down as leader – live
(35 minutes later)
8.11am BST08:11
John Barber, reporting from Toronto, says Trudeau’s victory heralds the return of a sunnier Canada:
The new Canadian leader’s easiest job will be showing the world that Canada has returned to its traditional role of international boy scout, abjuring the hard-right, militaristic and climate-denying record of the Harper government. In that, he will be helped by the fact that the previous government – despite its own rhetoric and that of its enemies – never completely abandoned the role.
Canadians and international observers can expect a sharp change in tone if not policy with respect to refugees and Canada’s involvement in the Middle East. In his victory speech, Trudeau also took pains to disavow the previous government’s attempts to win votes by inspiring fear of Muslim women who cover their faces.
“We know thar our enviable, inclusive society didn’t happen by accident, and won’t continue without effort,” he declared.
But there are challenges ahead:
The substance of the new leader’s claims will quickly be tested on the international stage at next month’s Paris climate summit, where a hastily assembled Canadian delegation will struggle to shake off the country’s reputation as a laggard in the international fight against climate change.
That may be more difficult than imagined, given Trudeau’s consistent support for the Canadian oil industry, especially the notoriously dirty tar sands.
Related: Indigenous Canadians take leading role in battle against tar sands pipeline
8.01am BST08:01
Well, I say unlikely contender. As a four-month-old, Justin Trudeau was heralded as a future Canadian prime minister by then US president Richard Nixon. Which is an endorsement of sorts.
As CBC News reports:
“Tonight we’ll dispense with the formalities. I’d like to toast the future prime minister of Canada: to Justin Pierre Trudeau,” Richard Nixon said at a gala buffet in April 1972 during a state visit to Ottawa when Trudeau was just four months old.
According to a contemporary news wire report, Trudeau’s father Pierre, then nearing the end of his first four-year Liberal mandate as prime minister, responded that should his eldest son – born on Christmas Day 1971 – ever become Canada’s leader, “I hope he has the grace and skill of the president.”
This is Justin Trudeau, on the left, being scooped up by his father, Pierre, who was returning from an overseas trip in 1983:
Updated at 8.04am BST
7.53am BST07:53
How did Justin Trudeau pull off this victory? Just a few months ago, he was an unlikely contender to be Canada’s next prime minister.
Running third in the polls, behind the incumbent Conservatives and the resurgent leftwing New Democratic party, Trudeau – son of legendary prime minister Pierre Trudeau – was slated as too young (he is 43) and too inexperienced to haul his beleaguered Liberal party out of the electoral mess of the 2011 general election.
What changed? Harper’s tactics, referring to his challenger condescendingly as “Justin” and campaign ads that poked fun at his “nice hair”, found no grip among a section of the electorate that wanted the Conservatives out at all costs, and increasingly saw Trudeau as the best chance of achieving that.
The long election campaign – the longest, in fact, since 1872, at 78 days – gave the Liberals the time to build on that boost. Trudeau told the Guardian in July that he relished it: “If there’s one thing that recent history in Canada has shown it’s that campaigns really matter. And there’s a tremendous volatility among voters who are just looking for the right alternative.”
Related: Justin Trudeau: who is Canada's new prime minister?
7.34am BST07:347.34am BST07:34
Opening summaryOpening summary
Claire PhippsClaire Phipps
Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Canadian general election, which has seen Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party score a stunning victory over the Conservative government of Stephen Harper.Welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Canadian general election, which has seen Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party score a stunning victory over the Conservative government of Stephen Harper.
Here’s how the night panned out:Here’s how the night panned out:
This is what positive politics can do. This is what a positive, hopeful, a hopeful vision, and a platform and a team together can make happen.This is what positive politics can do. This is what a positive, hopeful, a hopeful vision, and a platform and a team together can make happen.
Canadians from all across this great country sent a clear message tonight, it’s time for a change in this country, my friends, a real change.Canadians from all across this great country sent a clear message tonight, it’s time for a change in this country, my friends, a real change.
Canadians have turned the page on 10 long years. They have rejected the politics of fear and division.Canadians have turned the page on 10 long years. They have rejected the politics of fear and division.
Updated at 8.13am BST