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Gordon Hogg has seen a lot of pretty intense politics as a city councillor, mayor, an MLA and a provincial cabinet minister — but there’s really nothing quite like campaigning with Justin Trudeau.

“He’s a rock star,” marvelled Hogg, who retired from provincial politics in the spring, only to be lured to run for Trudeau’s federal Liberals in a looming byelection.

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Hogg is running in South Surrey-White Rock, the federal seat vacated by former Conservative MP Dianne Watts, who quit to seek the provincial Liberal leadership.

The riding has been a solid Conservative seat in the past, though Watts won it by a surprisingly narrow margin two years ago as a wave of Trudeaumania washed over B.C.

Now Trudeau’s Liberals have high hopes of stealing the seat from the Tories in the Dec. 11 byelection, optimism evident during Trudeau’s campaign swing through the riding last week.

“It was incredible,” Hogg gushed. “We didn’t really promote it heavily and to have over 1,000 people show up was amazing. He picked up every baby. He was getting high-fived by all the kids. It was very high energy.”