Is the name "Trudeau" poisonous in Alberta and other parts of the country? No. While campaigning during the provincial election a few months ago roughly 1/100 of people I knocked on the door of had an anti-Liberal perspective, and it was directly linked to the NEP and Trudeau. Outside of this fringe minority most didn't care -- or, like myself, were born more than a decade after the NEP -- and many are simply indifferent to the Liberal brand in Alberta.
The talk about Justin Trudeau taking the Liberal leadership always comes down to the same points: It's not his time, he's too young, his last name is poison in parts of the country, he hasn't run a successful business, he hasn't accomplished anything noteworthy. If any of these arguments sound familiar, it's because they were the same things said about senator Obama back in 2008. Can Trudeau, like Obama, incite some excitement into Canadian politics?