On the first anniversary of Justin Trudeau’s ordination as the fresh prince of the Liberal left, a goodly number of news organizations around the world dedicated gallons of ink and some of their endless space in the cybersphere on Trudeau’s ascension and banishment of the dreaded Harperites.

The love, by and large, was positively gushing.

One of the unlikeliest newspapers to put poetry to prose was the Luxemburger Wort, which published a glowing report of Trudeau having a 65% approval rating, but cited no origin.

After searching every side road off the information super-highway, even those driven by socialists, the closest one could get to a 65% approval rating was 10 percentage points lower, and that was courtesy of a September poll by Forum Research, the favoured firm of the Toronto Star.

So no surprise there.

A recent Ipsos poll had 64% of Canadians thinking Trudeau’s is more style than substance, but that hardly qualifies as a vote of confidence.

It was Forum Research, by the way, that claimed two-thirds of Liberal and NDP supporters would have wanted to form a coalition to handcuff the Conservatives should they have formed a minority government a year ago last week.

It was a crock of timely concoction, but what the hell? It kept the leftist narrative alive for a few scant months, and scared the bejeebers out of those who thought the Stephen Harper crowd might somehow pull it off.

Anyone who read the article in the Wort, however, would learn a few things about Justin Trudeau that perhaps slipped in under the radar during the rush to adulation.

Namely, that Trudeau is apparently the “new liberal standard-bearer on the world stage,” and that his father, the late Pierre Trudeau, is not only looked upon as a “liberal lion,” but as supposedly the “father of modern Canada.”

If “modern Canada” is about the outset of high government debt and deficit, forced bilingualism and multiculturalism rather than the cultural mosaic of assimilation, then Pierre Trudeau is indeed its father.

So credit where credit is due.

Now, it is not often one sees Duff Conacher’s name pop up in international publications, but the co-founder of the left-dependent Democracy Watch is front-and-centre in the Wort’s anniversary massage of Justin Trudeau’s body politic.

In its puffery on Trudeau, Wort describes our prime minister as a “former teacher and amateur boxer” who has earned praise “for budgeting billions to bolster a fragile economy, promoting feminism and handing out parkas to Syrian refugees — bucking the rise globally of the ultra-right.”

Conacher sums up Trudeau pretty well, although it is open to varied interpretations for those of us who do not swoon at the mere mention of Trudeau’s name.

“He has very strategically promoted his and his spouse’s celebrity, knowing that you reach a broader number of voters when you do that,” said Conacher.

“And they will continue to do that because people who don’t pay a lot of attention to politics, if they do vote, will make decisions based on who they like.”

Ain’t it the truth? If you like sizzle rather than the steak, then Justin Trudeau fits the bill.

If Canadians want a George Clooney type as prime minister, as handsome as all get-out, and an ethereal Sarah Jessica Parker type as his spouse, then their wishes have been granted.

As for intellectual and political depth beyond millennial self-importance, well, it tends to drop off a cliff.

This is not to say, however, that I am not impressed by Justin Trudeau, because I am.

He has managed to pull off an illusion of gravitas that has suckered the world, all while convincing this same world to ignore the fact that he is prime minister of a country that he has domestically ignored on the economic front.

That’s the downside of international celebrity as seen purely through the looking glass of star power.

Lack of depth becomes irrelevant.

markbonokoski@gmail.com