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OTTAWA — On Oct. 3, 2000, Justin Trudeau rose from his front-row pew in Montreal’s Notre Dame Basilica and slowly climbed the stairs to the altar, delivering an emotional eulogy for his deceased father, former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

After the 28-year-old son bade farewell — “Je t’aime, papa” — and wiped his eyes with a handkerchief, he walked to the flag-draped coffin, leaned into it and closed his eyes.

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Millions of Canadians shared the moment. The nationally televised coverage of the funeral capped a remarkable week of public sorrow at Pierre Trudeau’s death. In life, he had been a polarizing figure; in death, he was transformed into a political legend.

Thousands of kilometres to the west, in Calgary, another man was determined not to let the “myths” surrounding Trudeau’s legacy take root.

Stephen Harper, then the 41-year-old president of the National Citizens Coalition (NCC), was a proud conservative who had spent three years as a Reform MP. He had entered politics in the mid-1980s, in part because of his disdain for how Pierre Trudeau’s “Just Society” had changed Canada.