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All hail the Justin Society. It’s a world of personal freedom. Of fairness. Of prosperity.

It’s a world where Nathalie, the Liberals’ fictional anxious soccer mom, sees her children get great jobs and retires debt-free, cheerily chopping oranges in a sunny, light-filled kitchen. It’s a world where Canadians have hope, hard work is rewarded and negativity exists only in the dark corners of the Conservative war room.

Justin Trudeau’s keynote speech could be summed up in five words: I’m happy — vote for me. It might sound ridiculous; it’s not. Elections are about contrast, perception and capturing the zeitgeist. When the other guys are old, you offer young. When the other guys are negative, you offer positive. And when the other guys are angry, you offer a smile.

Conservative leader Stephen Harper isn’t really angry. He’s exasperated. He just doesn’t get why voters can’t get past this Senate stuff to see all the wonderful work his party has done. Compared to other countries, Canada survived the Great Recession relatively unscathed. The deficit is effectively slain, once you factor in the reserve. He has signed a plethora of trade deals, including one with Europe.

But Harper is also ruthless. The Tory bus has run over so many people it’s a wonder its wheels can still turn. This doesn’t sit well with many party faithful who sympathize with those who lie bleeding on the pavement. It also doesn’t sit well with many Canadians who want their prime minister to give them a warm hug instead of a cold reality check.

Make no mistake — Trudeau is ruthless too. But his victims are people no one cares or hears about. Senators who have spent years on the public dime. Potential Liberal candidates encouraged not to run for allegedly “open” nominations. These people aren’t piping up, because to do so would sour the happy face that is the party’s best hope for winning the next election.

The Liberal convention was as much an exercise in control as the Conservative meeting in Calgary last November. But the Liberals did control smart — with a smile. They did it, paradoxically, with open doors. They were like ducks paddling furiously below the surface, giving the outward impression of serenity. Come in, come in, spend some time with us. See how happy we all are. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a government like this?

The Liberals could afford to act this way because, unlike the Tories, they have a leader that none of them question. Those three thousand delegates are beyond grateful to Trudeau for bringing this party back from near-death. They can taste power again, and it’s like a popsicle on a hot summer day.

Trudeau gains nothing by demonizing Mulcair. But he loses nothing by demonizing Harper, because there are plenty of Tories — especially on the crimson end of spectrum — who feel alienated from the party and its leader.

Party brass at the convention also treated the press like professionals instead of pariahs — at least until the end of the convention, when they did not hold the customary final media availability with the leader. Liberals figure they can get away with this because they have a leader that people, including many members of the media, genuinely like. Likeability is their trump card. You’re either the guy people want to have over for dinner, or you’re not.

Outside the convention hall, people also want to believe Trudeau’s the real deal. That’s why attack ads haven’t worked on him. The Tories have finally figured this out and are going after his policies instead — of which we now may hear more, since the party now actually has some, most adopted without a peep of debate.

And what are those policies? To call them retro would be an understatement. The big hand of government weighed heavy: national strategies on transportation, energy, mental health, dementia, daycare, innovation and infrastructure. There were some new takes on the classic theme of personal freedom: Assisted suicide was described by one speaker as “continuing the ‘Just Society’ of Pierre Trudeau”, who booted the state from the bedrooms of the nation nearly five decades ago.

How would Trudeau pay for all these things? Presumably all this state action would generate so much growth that, eventually, in Trudeau’s words, “the budget would balance itself”. Somehow he’ll find 1 per cent of GDP for a daycare strategy, 1 per cent of GDP for infrastructure, more money for CPP, health care and “a basic annual income for a fair economy”. He’d have to generate so much growth that the country might explode.

But Trudeau is undeterred. “Too much government is an enemy of freedom and opportunity, but so too is too little,” he intoned on Saturday afternoon. It’s a classic Red Tory sentiment. And that is where Trudeau is aiming his guns.

The Liberals figure that in 2015 many NDP voters will come over on their own, as they settle on Trudeau as the person best able to beat Harper. Trudeau gains nothing by demonizing Tom Mulcair, which would just irk NDP voters and give them a reason not to switch to him.

But he loses nothing by demonizing Harper, because there are plenty of Tories — especially on the crimson end of spectrum — who feel alienated from the party and its leader. And so Trudeau made the point, “This Conservative party is not the party of John A. MacDonald. It is the party of Stephen Harper.” He champions “hope and hard work”, a slogan Conservatives could easily embrace.

For all their talk of ending the “divisiveness” of Canadian politics, the Liberals are framing the next election as a clash of values, generations, geography and personality. They want a fight between interventionist and minimalist government. Between 40-somethings and their parents. Between Eastern Canada and Western Canada. Between happy and angry. The Laurentian Elites, version 2.0, are back.

Tasha Kheiriddin is a political writer and broadcaster who frequently comments in both English and French. In her student days, Tasha was active in youth politics in her hometown of Montreal, eventually serving as national policy director and then president of the Progressive Conservative Youth Federation of Canada. After practising law and a stint in the government of Mike Harris, Tasha became the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and co-wrote the 2005 bestseller, Rescuing Canada’s Right: Blueprint for a Conservative Revolution. Tasha moved back to Montreal in 2006 and served as vice-president of the Montreal Economic Institute, and later director for Quebec of the Fraser Institute, while also lecturing on conservative politics at McGill University. Tasha now lives in Whitby, Ontario with her daughter Zara, born in 2009.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.