OTTAWA—Seems like we hadn’t seen him for a while, but there he was again, Sunny Justin, High Road Trudeau, the slayer of cynicism.

This was the Justin Trudeau who pledged to do politics differently when he won his party leadership in 2013.

That was before the open nomination pledge that went sideways, before Eve Adams, before the tongue often outpaced the brain, before he tossed in the towel on anti-terror legislation, before he got trapped in a murky middle which began to crumble beneath him and before he passed the baton of change to NDP Leader Tom Mulcair.

But this was Real Change.

It said so right there on the red podium as Trudeau spoke in front of a backdrop of shiny would-be Liberal MPs and sitting MPs.

The theme was the C-word. Cynicism in our system is rampant, Trudeau tells us and he is right.

It has been fostered by 10 years of Stephen Harper government and he is partly right, and Trudeau is the man to end that cynicism and, well . . . we’ll see.

Some suggested the politics of this Tuesday morning gathering was a reset on the sagging Trudeau brand. But that would be cynical.

In fact, the Liberal leader laid out some worthy ideas in a plan that touched on 32 different areas of interest, with an emphasis on the way we vote, the way the Commons operates and the way in which the Harper Conservatives have turned government into a secret cabal. We got a pledge of gender parity in a Liberal cabinet, easier and wider access to information, more free votes, a return of the long-form census, a Canada Revenue Agency that tells taxpayers when they have missed a benefit, electoral reform that could include ranked ballots, proportional representation, mandatory and online voting.

Stephen Harper, Trudeau says, has turned Ottawa into a “partisan swamp” where those who dissent and seek debate are attacked.

“Canadians are becoming cynical,” he says. “And who could blame us?”

It would, of course, be cynical to point out that the NDP put a motion on proportional representation to the Commons late last year and Trudeau voted against it.

Yet, Trudeau took aim at Harper and delivered some direct hits.

Some measures have already been announced, such as Trudeau’s proposal to appoint non-partisan senators recommended by an august third party, (Harper and Mulcair are being “cynical” on the Senate, Trudeau says,) banning partisan ads is the aim of a private member’s bill by David McGuinty and Trudeau did take the lead on disclosure of MPs’ travel and hospitality expenses.

But we’ve been here before.

It was four years ago that Trudeau’s predecessor, Michael Ignatieff, campaigned hard on transparency and accountability and restoring the honour to the country’s Parliament.

He was campaigning against a government that had been found in contempt of Parliament. The Conservatives dismissed Ignatieff’s critiques as so much white noise. The country shrugged and handed Harper a majority.

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Would it be different this time?

Trudeau aides will tell you that the Senate spending scandal has galvanized Canadian disgust with the way our government works, that suburban focus groups will continually tell you that all politicians are the same.

The question is whether Canadians are worried that this has worsened after four more years of Harper, or whether the way this business is run here after a decade is so ingrained that no one notices any longer.

They should be worried.

Ignatieff was the wrong messenger and Harper was asking for a majority from Canadians who were weary of minorities and craved the stability Harper sold.

Four years later, that stability has only engendered more cynicism, Harper is trying to buck historical trends by seeking another mandate instead of a personal off-ramp but, most crucially for Trudeau, he is now shouting from the bottom of the political well after a couple of years surfing at or near the top.

Trudeau is in the most crucial period of his leadership.

He has time to come back and take the mantle of change again from Mulcair. He is putting ideas on the table and is being scrutinized as a future prime minister. He has a problem inside the Ottawa bubble but could always point to crowds and fundraising prowess outside the bubble. Now polls show those problems are following him across the country.

One day that shaky middle in Canadian politics could collapse. Trudeau has four months to put himself back, front and centre, as the man who can beat Harper.

He has to be heard on days like this or he’s in big trouble. And there’s nothing cynical about that assessment.