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28th Jun 2017

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is coming to Ireland

The Canadian Prime Minister is coming over at the start of July.

Darragh Berry

The news was announced in the Dáil on Wednesday afternoon.

Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, will visit Ireland at the start of July. It is expected that he will arrive on 4 July.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has spoken highly about Trudeau’s policies in the past and the Canadian Prime Minister, like Varadkar in Dublin, was heavily involved in Toronto’s Pride Festival on Monday.

It’s hoped that Varadkar and Trudeau can build a good professional relationship and solidify the strong ties that exist between the two countries.

The last Irish-Canadian meeting came in May 2017 when Trudeau hosted former Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, in Montreal.

The 45-year-old is the 23rd Prime Minister of Canada and is also the leader of the Liberal Party.

His father was also a Prime Minister of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, the 3rd longest-serving Prime Minister in Canadian history, having served for over 15 years between 1968–1979 and 1980–1984.

Before he entered the world of politics in 2008, Trudeau was a teacher of French and Mathematics but looked to follow in his father’s footsteps after his death.

He was the Liberal Party spokesperson for Youth and Multiculturalism before becoming a spokesperson for citizenship and immigration. In 2011, he was appointed party spokesperson for secondary education and youth and amateur sport.

Trudeau became the leader of the Liberal Party in 2013 and has proven extremely popular.

He won the Canadian federal election in 2015 and boosted the popularity of the party from 36 seats to 184 seats, making them the largest party in Canada. The seat increase was the largest-ever numerical increase by a party in a Canadian election.

The Prime Minister also created Canada’s first cabinet with an equal number of men and women, an issue Varadkar has already had to face down in his short spell as Taoiseach.