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Except, it appears, if it’s Canada and you happen to be Justin Trudeau. Once again, as voters ponder how to mark their ballots come Monday’s election, we’ve had it made clear that there’s one set of rules for other people, and another for Justin Trudeau.

Photo by Gary Clement/National Post

Former president Barack Obama is not nearly as distasteful a person as the president of Russia, but he was engaged in a much more open case of intrusion when he urged Canadian voters Wednesday to vote for the Liberal leader over other candidates.

“I was proud to work with Justin Trudeau as President,” he tweeted. “He’s a hard-working, effective leader who takes on big issues like climate change. The world needs his progressive leadership now, and I hope our neighbors to the north support him for another term.”

Speaking at a campaign stop in St Hyacinthe, Que., Trudeau said of the endorsement: “I appreciate the kind words and am working hard to keep our progress going.” He declined to answer whether he asked Obama for his backing.

Obama and Trudeau developed a warm relationship during the brief period their mandates overlapped, and are said to have stayed in touch since, so both parties might be inclined to suggest this is just one politics guy expressing his appreciation of another politics guy. If it just happens to have landed five days before the culmination of a campaign in which Canada’s politics guy is fighting for his survival, so what? Trudeau conceded Wednesday he could go down to defeat at the hands of the Conservatives. So what could be better than a boost from a popular U.S. politician?