Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, 43, stands in the House of Commons during Question Period in Ottawa Tuesday. Photograph by: FRED CHARTRAND , THE CANADIAN PRESS

Trawl the comment boards and one of the most amusing entertainments is the performance of conservative social media trolls who once so adroitly mobilized to stereotype Stephane Dion as tongue-tied super dweeb and Michael Ignatieff as egghead carpetbagger.

Now the show is a frantic Whack-a-Mole effort to find an insulting stereotype that will stick to new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Among the well-worn motifs is mocking Trudeau, 43, as “Justin the Man Child.” In this ageist agitprop universe of wedge politics, Trudeau is to be framed as the callow, vapid youth too naive and devoid of gravitas to occupy such serious office.

That the Man Child is a whole three years younger than that hoary font of transplanted prairie wisdom Stephen Harper was when he ascended to stand astride parliament and put Canada right matters not a whit.

The Man Child has a tattoo. Eek! So does my daughter. Hockey tough guy Milan Lucic. Football heavy Dante Marsh. The young woman who trims my hair. And just about every guy I know who was once in the Navy. Queen Elizabeth might have one, for all I know. Tats are an indication of something?

I will admit, Harper frequently seemed older than his age to me, especially when grumping about political opponents. Trudeau does exude a youthful exuberance about his job. Frankly, that’s one of his attractive traits. I always prefer working with people who like their employers over people who think they are the enemy.

These social media comments seem trapped in a bizarre time warp. They resemble a John Oliver send-up rather than a viable strategy when the aggrieved start comparing Justin Trudeau to Justin Bieber.

Perhaps this “Tattooed Man Child stealing the Promised Land” idea plays to a more receptive audience where everything is flat than it does here, where everything is convoluted and nobody cares much what folks on the far side of the mountains think about anything.

We already have a long history in this province of trusting young people in high political office. British Columbia has had 33 premiers. Twenty of them were under 50 years of age when elected. Eight were 43 or younger. Four were 40 or younger. Two were under 40 and the youngest, Richard McBride, was elected at 33 — he turned out to be one of the really good premiers and was in office more than 12 years.

Five of B.C.’s last 10 premiers, including Christy Clark, were elected younger than 50 — and three of them were younger than Justin Trudeau.

And federally, before there was Trudeau the Younger to draw the wrath of conservative trolls, there was Pat Carney, elected to Vancouver Centre and sent to Ottawa and a cabinet post at the age of 45. After Carney there was Kim Campbell, Canada’s first female prime minister at age 46. Both Conservatives.

Even the reviled Man Child not is the youngest to occupy the prime minister’s office. That honour belongs to — Gadzooks! — a Tory. Joe Clark was 39 when he became prime minister. And, good heavens, the effective former Tory cabinet minister Jason Kenney, whom we’re told aspires to be prime minister himself, was elected at — wait for it — 29.

Of the nine federal prime ministers who took office before the age of 50, six were Tories. Mind you, the three young Liberals occupied the office for more than 37 years in total; six young Tories occupied it for less than 25 years. So maybe young Liberals have something young Conservatives should be studying instead of mocking.

Meanwhile, there’s the impressive new interim leader of the Conservative Party and present leader of the official Opposition, Rona Ambrose. She was 35 when she was first elected to parliament and almost immediately elevated to cabinet, where she distinguished herself.

Whether Ambrose has a tattoo or not, I have no idea and no intention of asking. In the meantime, if conservatives want to keep on entrenching themselves in the national consciousness as a party for stupid, angry old men, they are certainly on the right track in the blogosphere.

shume@islandnet.com