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The speech in the multi-ethnic Papineau riding that he represents as an MP also seemed aimed at emerging from the long shadow cast by his late father.

When he entered politics in 2007, his maiden speech dwelled on the legacy of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau and identified parallels between the political careers of father and son.

[np-related /]

On Tuesday, speaking to an adoring crowd of about 450 people, he mentioned his father just once in passing, concentrating instead on outlining what a second Prime Minister Trudeau could do for Canada.

“I love Montreal. I love Quebec. And I am in love with Canada,” he said. “I love this country, and I want to spend my life serving it.”

Four weeks after the election of a separatist government in Quebec, Mr. Trudeau called on Quebecers to embrace a different kind of nation-building. “My friends, I want to build a country too, a country worthy of my dreams, of your dreams,” he said. “But for me, that country reaches from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Great Lakes to the grand North.”

I think that he has good ideas, like his father

He cited medicare, multiculturalism and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as important Liberal contributions to Canada. But he said his leadership would ensure the party does not dwell in the past.

“The time has come to write a new chapter in the history of the Liberal party,” he said, promising to lead “a movement of Canadians that seeks to build, not rebuild.”

He lashed out at the governing Conservatives and Opposition NDP, accusing them of being driven by ideology. Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP leader Thomas Mulcair are “dead wrong about this country,” he said. He accused the Conservatives of “inventing the facts to justify the policies,” and promised he would welcome proposed solutions from the left and from the right.