Justin Trudeau and the play of celebrity in the 2015 Canadian federal election campaign

Abstract

This article examines the 2015 Canadian federal election in which the Liberal Party took office under the leadership of Justin Trudeau. Celebrity was a dominant theme during the campaign, applied by the Conservative Party to discredit Trudeau by playing on his youthful good looks and ‘new masculinity’. The Conservative campaign drew attention to Trudeau and its own aggressive tactics and entered into a spiral of negativity that the Liberals would capitalise on with optimistic and progressive themes. We argue that the effects of celebrity politics on elections must be studied within the context of national–cultural attitudes towards celebrity, media characterisation of candidates and political parties prior to the election campaign, previous campaigns, the duration of the official campaign as well as the existence of the ‘permanent campaign’ on the part of governments, and the dynamics of the celebrity theme as the campaign progresses. In the context of Canada, particular state–culture dynamics are at work that legitimate the celebrity politician.

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