In January, Trudeau was asked about his past conduct in the context of a discussion about the #MeToo movement. A string of Canadian politicians had resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment and assault, prompting a reporter for CBC News to ask Trudeau if there was “a chance at some point that your actions might not have been construed the way they were intended”.

“I don’t think so,” Trudeau replied, adding that he had been working on issues around sexual assault for over 25 years. “I’ve been very, very careful all my life to be thoughtful, to be respectful of people’s space and people’s headspace as well.”

Despite his confidence in his own past behaviour, Trudeau said he should also be judged against his government’s zero-tolerance approach to historic sexual misconduct.

“The standard applies to everyone,” he said. “There is no context in which someone doesn’t have responsibility for things they’ve done in the past.”

In the months since the #MeToo movement went global, it has become starkly apparent that men and women often have very different recollections of an interaction; that a woman can be left feeling unsettled or even traumatised by an interaction that a man saw as benign, humorous or insignificant. We have seen, with breathtaking clarity, that many men still do not understand the impact their behaviour can have on women. We have seen macho politicians from the US to Japan dismiss allegations of sexual misconduct against them.

What we have not seen, until now, is a self-proclaimed ‘male feminist’ political leader grapple with his past, his ethics and his own accountability on the world stage. It’ll be interesting to see how this one plays out.

Images: Getty Images

Justin Trudeau, a self-proclaimed feminist, is facing groping allegations