One is the yoga-loving, refugee-welcoming, staunch feminist Prime Minister of Canada, the other is David Cameron. How did Canada get so lucky?

Words: Rachel Sylvester

In your Facebook feed recently you might have seen a fit, suited man balancing his entire body on two hands in a yogic ‘peacock pose’. You’ve possibly noticed an image of the same man giving out coats to refugee children, and you might even have seen a video of him stunning an audience of journalists with an off-the-cuff explanation of quantum computing. So who is he? The latest Marvel superhero, a wellbeing guru or perhaps a scientific genius? Actually, he is Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of, ahem, Canada.

In cultural and political terms, the UK traditionally regards – or disregards – Canada as our less glamorous Commonwealth cousin, yet when was the last time one of our politicians truly wowed us? The UK’s political leaders only go viral when they’ve been stranded on a zipwire (Boris Johnson), worn socks with their Crocs (Jeremy Corbyn) or told a female colleague to “calm down, dear” (David Cameron). Which makes us eager to discover who exactly Justin Trudeau is, what does he believe in and frankly, should we all be considering a move to Canada?

We’re not the only ones contemplating the new poster boy of politics. When, in March, the Liberal leader Trudeau, 44, became the first Canadian PM to be invited for a state visit to Washington in nearly 20 years, The New York Times made the outrageous – by American standards – suggestion that he had made Canada ‘hip’. Barack Obama described him as a protégé, saying he had brought “new energy and dynamism” to Canada and there was even a 350% spike in Google searches by Americans asking, ‘How can I move to Canada?’. Trudeau himself has acknowledged his surprise that every time he says he’s a feminist, “The Twitterverse explodes”. To his eternal credit, he also says, “I am going to keep saying loud and clear that I am a feminist until it is met with a shrug.”

Prime Minister envy: Why David Cameron should take a cue from Canadian PM Justin Trudeau