10 Things You Didn’t Know About Justin Trudeau

Monday night, the Liberals pulled off what no one thought they could do. After coming out of the 2011 election with only 34 seats in the House of Commons, Justin Trudeau managed to turn it around and not only walk away with the win, but with a majority. The Liberals also swept every riding in all three territories as well as the majority of Atlantic Canada and the GTA. They now occupy 184 out of 338 seats in the House of Commons. So maybe it’s time to get to know our new Prime Minister a little better.

You probably already know that Justin Pierre James Trudeau is 43 years old, and the eldest son of former Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau. He’s married with three kids, and according to the Internet he’s kind of a stud with great hair. Those are all important points, but here are 10 things you might not have known about our brand new Prime Minister.

He announced he would be running for leader of the Liberal Party on October 2, 2012, which would have been his younger brother, Michel's 37th birthday. Michel was killed in an avalanche when he was only 23. In Justin's 2014 memoir, he said his "father was never the same man" following the death of his happy-go-lucky brother.

He supports the legalization and regulation of marijuana and doesn’t think smoking a little weed once in awhile is anything to hide or be ashamed of. He told The Huffington Post, “When the joint went around the room, I usually passed it around to the next person. But sometimes throughout my life, I’ve had a pull on it. I’m not someone who is particularly interested in altered states, but I certainly won’t judge someone else for it.”

He has an artistic streak. Not only does he have a Bachelor’s degree in literature from McGill University, but in 2007, he starred in a two-part CBC miniseries called The Great War. He played Talbot Mercer Papineau, a soldier who was killed during the Battle of Passchendaele.

He and NDP leader Tom Mulcair are distant cousins. According to ancestry.ca, they share eighth great-grandparents, a couple who lived in Quebec in the 1600’s.

Before getting into politics, he was a high school teacher in Vancouver. He spent most of his time teaching drama, but also taught a few classes in French and math. While campaigning, the Conservatives made fun of his past as a teacher, saying he wasn’t cut out to lead a country. But he took it all in stride and released an ad set in what else— a classroom.

He has a tattoo, and it isn’t small either. In his 20’s he got planet Earth inked onto his left shoulder, and on his 40th birthday he added a Haida raven surrounding the planet.

We all know that Justin's is following in the footsteps of his late father, Pierre Trudeau, but politics run in the family on his mother’s side as well. His maternal grandfather, James Sinclair was a Liberal MP and cabinet minister in the 1940’s and 50’s during William Lyon Mackenzie King and Louis St. Laurent’s terms as Prime Minister.

He is only the second child ever to be born while a parent was in power. The first was John A. Macdonald’s youngest daughter Margaret Mary Macdonald. Trudeau’s younger brothers Alexandre and Michel became the third and fourth, and there haven’t been any since.

The eulogy he gave at his father’s funeral in 2000 was incredibly well received and helped bring him into the spotlight as a serious candidate for the future leadership of the Liberal party, and maybe even the country. Politician Claude Ryan described it as “perhaps the first manifestation of a dynasty.” The Trudeau’s have been described as the closet thing Canada has to the Kennedy’s.

His wife Sophie Gregoire was actually a good friend of his younger brother, Michel, growing up. Since she’s four years younger than him, nothing romantic happened until they met again years later when they were assigned to co-host a charity event together. They fell in love and got married in 2005. They have three children: Xavier James (born October 2007), Ella-Grace Margaret (February 2009), and Hadrien (born February 2014).